NSFCD

Hello,
This fic has been quite successful, so I've decided to put it on here. :)
NOTE: I will be posting every made chapter up, right now,
So, wait until chapter 35 is up.
Enjoy! :)

(http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x78/baboo22photo/link_banner211.png)

PROLOGUE

In the early seventh century, A Zweihander for the king of Germany was made.
At first it was an ordinary sword,
but once it was bathed in blood and hatred from numerous wars,
the sword turned into a demonic weapon capable of controlling men's minds.
This Blade was known as soul edge.

During the night, soul edge took over the king's body and killed numerous people.
but after he took the life of his own son,
he knew this had to stop.
so the king made a holy weapon named Soul calibur, to counter-act the evil blade.

before he died, the king hid the two weapons somewhere in Europe.
Soul edge stayed hidden for 9 hundred years.
But one day. A german knight named Siegfreid schtauffen found the demonic blade.

but slowly, the sword was starting to take over his mind.
and his right arm twisted into a horrible monstrosity.
and after 4 years Siegfreid was fully taken over by the sword's power.
He renamed himself Nightmare, and with soul edge in hand, he spread fear and death into every corner
of europe.

People heard that there is a Sword that could stop Soul edge.
but is still missing.
So people made it their quest to find the legendary soul Calibur and stop Nightmare and his evil doings.
But no one has ever found the holy sword.

This is a tale of a young man from another world who has also
made it his quest to save his world and this world from the evil powers of soul edge.

This is his story of souls and swords.

***********************************************************

CHAPTER 1

It has been 5 years since Link and Zelda sealed ganondorf in the sacred realm.
And all was peaceful.

All was quiet in Kokiri forest.
It felt quite odd for link being the only adult in the forest.
but the other children respected him as their new leader.
After link ate his supper and was about to go to bed,
A pigeon holding a letter went through Link's window.

The carrier pigeon gave Link the letter, it said:

"Link, tomorrow come to Hyrule castle's throne room
and bring the master sword.
I will meet you there."
yours truly: Zelda.

tomorrow was another cloudy day and it looked like it was going to rain
So Link got to Castle town as soon as he could.
He stopped by the temple of time and grabbed the Master sword's hilt and pulled it out of the pedestal.

As he ran towards the castle, it started to Thunder out.
when he got to the throne room.
at the end of the red carpet hallway,
He saw
the six sages
and Zelda.
"why did you summon me here zelda?"
Link questioned.

"Link have you noticed that the weather has been terrible lately?"
"yes"
"it's because of a Wizard that can control nature is doing this" Zelda exclaimed
"and why is he doing this?"
link asked.
"we do not know his motives yet but..."
"HE HAS DESTROYED MY CITY BROTHER!!!!!!!"
as Daurunia yelled as he cut into the conversation.
"If we don't stop him now..."
Impa said,
"he will unleash hurricanes and tornado's upon us"
Nabooru said a little frightened
"and Hyrule will be destroyed along with everyone in it"
Saria said.

"so you want me to stop him"
Link said
"yes. We have found out that he is residing inside of death mountain"
zelda exclaimed.
" HERE BROTHER!"
Daurunia yelled as he gave Link a goron Tunic
"It will protect you from heat and fire"

"thanks" Link said

"So, i'll be off then" Link said as he walked out of the throne room.
It was still raining we he exited the market.
and he approached Death mountain.
Not knowing of the adventure that awaits him.

**********************************************************************
CHAPTER 2

As Link entered Kakariko village.
It was on fire.
houses were nothing more than ashes only to be blown away by the wind.
lifeless bodies were scattered everywhere.
"that fool!
he will pay for this!"
link shouted angrily.
as he ventured through Death mountain trail.
He found Goron city.
Goron city was now just a giant crater.
"no wonder daurunia was so upset before" link exclaimed

as he walked through the burnt city,
he saw dead Gorons every where
link got more and more frustrated every time he saw a poor defenceless goron on the ground.

as he entered death mountain he thought that the wizard's
residence was probably inside the fire temple.
As he opened the door
to the arena ehere the Late Volvagia resided
there he was.

The Magician was chanting some sort of spell.
He hadn't noticed that link had stepped into the room.
That is until the door behind Link shut with a booming noise.

"so, i have a visitor"
the Wizard said maniacally as he opened his crimson eyes."
"so" Link yelled
"your the idiot who destroyed kakariko and goron city"
"correct!" the evil magician chuckled
"and it was fun doing it too!"
this enraged link.
He lunged at him, grabbing the hilt of the Master sword.
unsheathing it, he slashed wildly at the wizard.
only to be swiping at air.
"i'm behind you moron!"
the Wizard said as his palm started to glow with flames
he blsted a hole in Links tunic.

"Darn it!"
Link yelled
"now I have to beat him even faster"
"I wish i had Navi was with me so I could know his weak spot"
The magician started to float in the air as he fired a fire ball at the celing of the arena.
peices of Rock started falling down.
Link dodged every stone that was aimed for him.
then he realized.
"wait, all his attacks are fire based!"
"so that means if I shot something cold at him it might stun him!"
as Link pulled out his fairy's bow, He put an arrow in place
"Ice arrow!"
Link yelled as his arrow burst into ice.
He let go of the bow string letting go the arrow of ice.

It hit the Wizard straight in the chest.
as he let out a painful scream
he dropped to the ground gasping for air.
That's when he saw an angry Hero of time with his master sword drawn running at him.
"I can't move!!!"
the Wizard yelled in pain
SKRAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!
Link yelled as he slashed and slashed numerous times
until the Magician fell on the ground breathing heavily.
Link grabbed him and yelled.
"why are you doing this?
If you answer my question, i'll make your passing easy"
"heh...*cough*...heh..."
the wizard wheezed
"you'll.... never.. stop *cough* soul edge...."
then there was no movement from him.
He had died.
A metal fragment fell out of his sleeve
Link picked it up" I wonder what this i...
"AAARGH!!!!"
Link screamed in pain as his back was burning
he ran back to castle town exhausted.
Zelda was waiting for him.

Link woke up. his back still hurting.
He was in the infirmary.
Zelda was sitting beside his bed
she had the metal fragement in her hand
Link said to her "he said something about a soul edge"
"this fragement you picked up,
it is full of evil aura, and it's nothing like ganon's aura either"
"it's weird though" zelda said calmly
"even though you killed the wizard,
the dark clouds are still there"
"what?!?" link said
then he remembered the sharp pain in his back and sat back down in the bed.
"there is something connected to this peice"
"I'm betting this metal fragment is the cause of all this"
zelda exclaimed
" I can sense the rest of this metal object, it is in another world"
"so if we don't destroy this whole thing, hyrule is as good as gone then." Link said
worried.
"i'm also guessing this soul edge is the metal peice of evil"
Link said
"yes, but there is still hope"
zelda said. "what might that be?"
"if I can focus long enough I can track down the rest of the metal fragment,
and open a portal using my magic to transport you to the other world.
And there you can destroy the metal object!"
"sounds like a plan"
Link said confidently
"just give me a week to heal and i'll be off!"
"okay!" said Zelda
"we'll meet in front of the temple of time in a week then"



*a week later*

"Okay here it goes!"
said zelda
she focused for about 10 minutes
then a triangular portal started to appear
" Go Link! and good luck!!!!"
said a concentrating zelda
" okay"
Link said as he stepped into the portal
then all went black for Link.

CHAPTER 3

"ugh... my head" Link groaned to himself as he opened his eyes...
"huh?" link said suprised. For some odd reason, he was lying in bed in someone's house.
he looked around for a bit.
on the right he saw a kitchen and alot of racks filled with spices an ingredients.
on the right he saw a giant arena.
"so, your'e finally awake."
A voice behind Link said.
"huh"
Link said as he turned his head.
He saw a man with a blue gi on and was smoking some sort of pipe
"who are you?" Link asked
the mn turned around in his chair.
"the name's Mitsurugi"
the man exclaimed. "And you are...?"
"oh... my name is Link"
"where am I ?"
Link questioned.
"your in western Regulus, off the coast of eastern asia"

"so that means... Zelda's plan actually worked"
Link said with joy.
"who's this Zelda ?"
misturugi asked.
"never mind... w\and why are your'e ears pointed?"
"doesn't everybody here have pointed ear?"
Link asked
"no we have round ears"
Mitsurugi chuckled
"I found you in my feild yesterday night...'
He exclaimed...
"there was a bright light, so I went to check it out... and there you were"
mitsurugi said.
" so I helped you out, put you in bed, and now here we are"

as Link tryed to get up, he felt a shrp pain in his side.
Link put his hand in his pocket and took out the evil metal fragment.
It was glowing like crazy.
"I guess i'm in the right world then..."
Link said to himself.

Link asked mitsurugi
"do you know anything about a Soul edge?"
"hmmmm... so you are one of those fools who are trying to attain immortality eh?"
mitsurugi said.
"huh?"
Link said
"this soul edge is a demonic blade that only has one master. His name is nightmare
for the past four years, he has been terrorizing europe. but for some reason, peices of soul edge
have been starting to chip off".
"so that's why the Magician had that metal fragement"
Link said.
"then I have a peice of soul edge."
Link said as he showed mitsurugi the metal shard
"I am on a quest to destroy this demonic blade you speak of"
Link said in a heroic voice
"well then, if you want to destroy the sword, youre gonna have to destroy it's master first."
Mitsurugi exclaimed
"and everyone that has challenged nightmare has died, and his soul has been sucked into
Soul edge."
"well back in my world, i'm the strongest of my people!"
Link said.
"well, lets see your skills then"
as mitsurugi pointed to Link's master sword and hylian sheild

A few minutes later, they both inside the arena.
"lets see what you got"
Mitsurugi said, unsheathing his sword
"this blade is called Suishi-oh, it has never lost a battle"
he said with pride
"so lets begin" Link said
and the fight was on

As Link swiped at mitsurugi,
although he back flipped behind Link kicking him in the back making link fall to the cold ground
As link tried to get up,
Mitsurugi pointed his sword at him.
"what was that?"
Mitsurugi said,
"if you fought nightmare like this, let alone all the dangers that wait ahead of you
you would die the second you stepped out of our village!"
Mitsurugi said.
"well, is there a way i can get stronger?"
link said
"there is a way.. LEON!!"
mitsurugi yelled as a man in a red suit came to him
"yes master?"
Leon replied
"train our guest here for about 10 days and then we should see some progress"
mitsurugi said as he walked off.
"Leon is the second best fighter in our village"
"he is now your sparring partner for the next 10 days"
Mitsurugi said as walked into another room

"so,"
Leon said,
"what?"
Link said
"the traing begins... NOW!"
Leon yelled as he unsheathed his Rapier like sword at link.

*****************************************************************
CHAPTER 4

"Good!,You you can now pull off the guard break manuever"
Leon said cheerfully

It has been six days since Link started his rigerous training with Leon.

"Okay, whats the next lesson?"
Link asked.
"I think it is about time you learned..."
Leon started to say.
"what am I supposed to learn?" Link asked.
" Do you remember the metal fragment you posess?"
"of coarse i do" Link said.
Leon put his hand in his pocket and grabbed something
and showed it to Link.
" where did you find that?"
Link asked
The object in Leon's hand was infact another metal fragement, just like Link's.
"I found it when I defeated some theives..."
Leon stated.
"one of them dropped this. I've heard rumors that the demonic sword, Soul Edge, was losing
parts of metal on it. I bet you that these metal shards are the missing peices of Soul Edge."
Leon explained.
"I don't think Mitsurugi knows this, but I intend on going on a journey to defeat nightmare and
that unholy weapon".
"but, I have found this a long time ago and found out some intresting things about it".
As Leon was saying.

"Like what?"
Link said
"I have found out that this peice of metal can make you withstand many sword blows to your body."
Leon said
"That's amazing!"
Link said astonished.
"but it also gives a person who is near you that ability,
so that means that your opponent will be able to withstand sword injuries."
Stated Leon.

"anyways, there is also a technique where you can manipulate this fragment to make your speed, and
attacks stronger. I call it "Soul charge""
Leon said
"that can be helpful"
Link said under his breath
"but you can only use this technique once a day since it drains alot of your energy, so use
it wisely."
Leon said
"So can we try this technique out?"
Link asked
"of coarse we will!"
Leon said
"So lets get started!"
Link said happily.

*four days later*

"I... DID IT!!!!"
Link yelled as he could feel the power of the fragment inside him.
"amazing..."
leon said to himself
"it took me months to master soul charge, and it took him only four days!
This boy is determined to save his world".
Just as he said that, Mitsurugi walked in...

"well, I see you have used your 10 days wisley..."
he stated.
"I have talked to the village council about this, and they have said
you will be tested of your skills and strength, before you can venture out into the rest of the world"
"in other words, if you don't pass this test, you will not be able to leave.
We do this for all of the young men who wan't to leave, so they can be ready for the trials ahead."


"don't worry!"
Link said
"with my new moves, I can pass that test with flying colours!"
"alright then."
Mitsurugi said
"you have three days to rest, and then we will go to western Regulus for your test"

"I want to enter too!"
Leon said.
"Are you planning to leave too leon?'
Mitsurugi asked
" yes, I am on a quest to destroy soul Edge too!"
Said Leon
"very well then"
Said mitsurugi
"I will tell the council your decision,
for now, you should rest up, for you will be fighting our most expeirienced fighters. Good luck.
I will see you in three days".

**********************************************************

CHAPTER: 5 PART: 1

As the three days passed, Link was getting ready to set off with Mitsurugi
and Leon.
As he picked up his trusty Master sword, and Hylian sheild he walked out the door
of the training arena.

after about 5 hours of traveling, the trio set their eyes upon an ancient ruin.
mitsurugi checked his map and said.

"this is bulwark ruins. This means we are at the halfway point of Regulus."
he explained as he put away his map.

"what do you mean "half way point?"
Link asked confused.
"Regulus is seperated in three quadrants. The first quadrant
is where you have been for the past 13 days, my village."
Mitsurgi explained
"Where we are going is the third quadrant, which is called the warrior's trial grounds."
"and where we are now, is the second quadrant, bulwark Ruins."
Mitsurugi said
"it is also known as the half way point"
"why?"
Link said, still confused.

"you see, the first quadrant is where you train to become strong."
Leon started to say.
"bulwark ruins, once was a place where those trained warriors went to receive special training.
and the Warrior's trial grounds is where those warriors come to be tested on their training so they
can venture around the rest of the world."
Leon paused
"it's somewhat like a gate way, that you have to earn entrance to".
Leon said
"and i'm gonna earn that one-way ticket outta here."
he said quietly, so Mitsurugi couldn't hear him.

"but some people left the ruins only half-trained"
mitsurugi exclaimed.
"Those people are now just lowly theives and bandits that make people pay to cross these ruins."
"but we aren't going to let them get away with that, will we?"
he said.

As they entered the dark ruins,
people wearing cloth covering their faces where only their eyes were visable on their face

"if you want to pass..."
the theif started to say,
"you will have to pay 800 gold."

"but all I have are rupees."
Link started to say
"what the h*** are rupees?"
The theif asked annoyingly
"are you trying to pull a fast one kid?"
the theif said as he drew his one-handed sword from his belt.

As he lunged at Link, mitsurugi jumped in the way and blocked his attack with *Shishi-oh*
as leon swept in with his *Wa dao* to swipe at his stomach.
The theif fell on to the ground.

"these are the people who were only half-trained"
Shouted mitsurgi as the sounds of unsheathing swords were being heard in the shadows.
"Keep your'e guard up!"
mitsurgi warned.

Link had already drawn his sword,
ready for the battle to begin...

TO BE CONTINUED...

CHAPTER 5 PART 2

"prepare yourself my freinds!" mitsurugi yelled at Leon, and Link.
As link strung his bow with an arrow,he was ready to fire at the first theif who came out of the shadows.
It was very dark inside the ruins, So before the battle, mitsurugi Lit a lantern anf put on his belt.
The ruins looked very old. vines were covering the walls, and wood was starting to rot.
Link could feel that there had been alot of strife, and sadness here.
as he could fell his heart pounding, he remembered leon's words when he was training with him.

"as long as you have that peice, you can withstand many sword blows. But, it also gives someone that is near you that ability also." thats when Link strung two more arrows on his bow, making three.
Then, the trio heard battle cries everywhere, as they readied their weapons one last time,
they could hear footsteps that were getting closer and closer.

Right when the first theif was visable, Link shot him with all three arrows, impaling him in the chest,
blodd squirting out, the theif under his breath said.

"get...ready...to..die...." the theif's last words were.
right then, then 20 theives popped out of the shadows, their machetes drawn, ready to attack at any moment. Thats when Leon started to glow brightly.
"thats soul charge" link said to himself. "But why is he using it so early in battle?"
Link wondered as he unsheathed his master sword.

Just then in a flash of speed, 6 theives fell to the ground, with a giant slash across their stomachs,
as they made a pool of blood, the 14 theives charged at them.
Just then, Link put his sword behind his head, and his sword caught on fire. Thats when Link screamed.
"KAI-TEN-GIRI!" then in a spiral of fire, and speed, he swung his sword around crazily while on fire.
The blow killed about 5 thives, leaving only 9 left as they charged at mitsurugi, Link tried to intervene,
but Leon wouldn't let him.

"don't worry about him" Leon started to say "he can handle those guys".
Link then nodded and stepped back. as the last theif was impaled and fell to the dusty ground,
Link yelled "WE DID IT!" as he sheathed his sword and sheild. As they reached the exit of the dank ruins,
they had just entered a huge feild, mountains were to the east, a forest to the north, and a giant castle to the west. Mitsurugi pointed at the castle, and said, "That is the Warrior's trial grounds."
"oh, it doesn't look that far away" Link started to say, "we should make it there by nightfall".
Mitsurugi exclaimed.
"I wonder what that bright light emmiting from leon was..." Mitsurugi thought as they journeyed through the large feild. It was almost identical to Hyrule feild, but there wasn't a ranch in the middle of it.
as the trio ventured to the castle.
************************
meanwhile in berlin, Germany, Nightmare has killed, but another foolish human.
As his lifeless body hit the grassy ground, a blue light came from his body, and was
sucked into Souledge, as nightmare said to himself with a develish voice,"here is another soul, master"
"very good!" said an unknown voice." Nightmare, there is a boy that came here from another world, that is bent on destroying soul edge and you" The voice said, " and this boy seems stronger than the average human" "do not fear, master" Nightmare said, evily "you shall feast on his soul soon enough!"
Nightmare said as he dissapeared in a flash

***********************************************************

CHAPTER 6

As the trio ventured through the grassy feild of western Regulus, the castle still seemed too far away.
Mitsurugi checked his map again and said.

"well we still have a good 4 hour walk ahead of us" he exclaimed.
"Aw, come on! my feet are klling me!" Link complained.
"it's getting dark." Mitsurugi said. "we shall set up camp there."
He pointed to a crystal clean lake" we can fill up on our water then".

During the night, Mitsurugi could hear the clashing of swords all night.
It was Link and Leon training for the the big trial tomorrow.
"aaaargh..." mitsurugi growled as he put his pillow over his head.

when it was dawn, the lake shimmered brightly in the sunlight, as the trio packed their things and once again ventured off towards the castle.

as they finally reached the trial grounds, they were exhausted, they were givin something to eat.
As they were eating their meals, a booming voice called out,"Those who are in the trials, meet in the central arena, we will meet you there." As the large booming voice stopped, leon, and Link picked up their weapons, and headed to the giant arena, waiting for further instructions.

As they entered the arena, they started to look around the huge room. It was a giant red room with seats
on each side of the arena. "Looks like people are going to watch us fight," Link whispered to Leon.
there were statues of people every where, and there was a gate on the other side of the giant battle arena. That must have been the reward, access to the rest of the world. There were about six other people beside Link and Leon, all holding their polished weapons. As they looked upwards, there was another floor
where 5 people sat and watched, one of those people were Mitsurugi. Then the man in the middle chair stood up.

"Welcome to the warrior's trial grounds!" He exclaimed with a booming voice, "here you will be tested on your skills with a weapon, so you can enter through that gate." He pointed over to the gate.
"now how this will be cecided on who fights who so, we have made it into a tournament.
We have already decided who you will fight So, here is the tournament board."
First round: Link vs. yoshi, second round: leonardo vs. joshua, third Round: Peter vs. Jeramiah, And finally, the fourth round: Ezekiel vs. Leon.
"Now that every body has been situated, the first match starts in 10 minutes".

As Link stared at his opponent, he had long red hair, a blue vest, a brown shirt with a green japanese charecter on it, and black pants, he was also carrying a long broad sword with him.
"well, aren't we colourful today?" Said Link sarcastically.

"Shut-up! Just for that comment, I will defeat you even faster!" He said as he pointed his broad sword at Link's face. "And what's with the ears? are you an elf?" Yoshi said as he started to laugh.
link started to steam. as he walked off to get ready for their "freindly" match.

After 10 minutes, Yoshi and Link walked towards the arena, giving eachother evil faces on the way.
The bleachers were filled with people cheering and clapping for the match to start. Then the large booming voice said,"Ladies and Gentle men, welcome to the first round of the tournament! Link and Yoshi will be fighting eachother. The match will officially start once I say begin."

the two challengers stared at eachother, unsheathing their swords, "3, ...2, ...1, ... BEGIN!!!!"

*********************************************************************

CHAPTER 7

"BEGIN"! Yelled the announcer as the two moved around the stadium, their eyes glued to eachother,
waiting for someone to make the first move. As the two fighters held their swords tightly, they could
hear the crowd roaring, wanting them to actually fight. Then out of the blue, Yoshi leaped towards Link,
his broad sword in a stabbing position. As link unsheathed his sheild, he blocked the attack just in time.

"your good..." Yoshi said as he jumped back to his previous spot, "but not good enough!" he yelled, as he leaped for another attack, as his broad sword was coming down, Link moved out of harms way,
and hit Yoshi in the back, with the hilt of the master sword. As Yoshi flew back yet again,
holding his back with pain, he yelled, "thats it! i'm going to finish this!" he yelled, as he threw his sword at Link. He dodged the incoming broad sword as it hit a wall and fell to the ground.

"This was WAY too easy!" Link exclaimed with joy, as Yoshi got into a fighting stance, "I can still fight"! yoshi said confidentley, that is until Link took out his fairy's bow, and aimed it at yoshi's head. "It's over", said link calmly, as Yoshi started to step away and said "your not actually going to fire that, are you,? pointy ears" as Link fumed, he started to pull back on the string of the bow, Yoshi
screamed and fell to the ground. "I give up!" he yelled.
"This game's winner is Link"! the announcer yelled, as the audience went crazy. "the next match will begin in 10 minutes" he yelled, As Link headed towards the mess hall. As he was eating some chicken, Mitsurugi entered and started to walk over to him.

"good fight there Link" he said to him. "It was nothing." Link muffled because of all the chicken stuffed in his mouth. "The next round has started, are you going to watch?" he asked. "nah, I think i'll just watch Leon's matches" he replied. "Well, good luck with your next matches". he yelled as he exited the mess hall.

********************

"This game's winner is Leonardo!" the announcer screamed. As joshua lay on the ground, a pool of blood was starting to appear under him. Leonardo looked at him and said "pathetic" under his breath and walked out of the arena. As paramedics ran out to put joshua on a stretcher, Leonardo sheathed his double handed
sword and headed towards the lounge.

*********************

"Nightmare..." an unknown voice called out to the dark knight.
"what is it master?" nightmare replied. "I need you to check on our little pointy ear freind so we can see how strong he really is...." said the unknown voice. "Alright, I will head out to Regulus right now".
He said as he teleported.

*********************

"the winner of the third round is Jerimiah"! the announcer yelled. Peter was screaming in pain as he was holding his broken arm that jerimiah just gave him. "Your lucky that arm of yours didn't come off".
Jerimiah said back to a screaming Peter.

"And now, the last round until the semifinals!" The announcer yelled, as the crowd cheered.
"Leon vs. Ezekiel!" As Leon, and his opponent walked into the arena, loking at eachother, cautiosly.
"I feel a strange energy coming from this man" Ezekiel said to himself.
"3...2...1... BEGIN"! The announcer said, and in a flash second, Ezekiel hit the ground.

Everyone gasped as the announcer said "th..this games winner is... Leon"!
as Leon was walking out of the stadium, he put his metal fragment back in his pocket.
"heh...heh.. this will get me to the finals very quickly" he chuckled to himself, as he walked
towards the mess hall.

"And with that, the preliminary rounds are over!" the announcer said, "tomorrow, the semifinals will start off with link vs. leonardo. See you all tomorrow"! the announcer said as the crowd exited the battle arena. just then a silhouette appeared in the shadows and said "it's only a matter of time now"
Nightmare said as he teleported again.

CHAPTER 8

"Link! help me!" Zelda screamed. As link tried to reach out for her.
"I'm coming Zelda!" Link yelled. Just then, a giant Sword impaled zelda, as she hit the ground,
A dark figure wearing armour pulled the giant sword out of the lifeless princess's body, blood was dripping from the giant blade.
Link screamed in horror.
Then the figure told Link, "Your next!" As he started to run towards him, Link tried to move, but he couldn't.As the dark figure's sword came down, a flash of light appeared, and then there was nothing.
That's when link woke up. He shot upwards and screamed, he looked around for the dark figure, only to find that he was in his rented room. He was panting heavily and sweating.

"Hoa...." Link panted, "it was only a dream...". As Link's head hit the soft pillow,
he wondered why he had that dream in the first place.
"I..it's probably because I have a big match tomorrow, nothing to worry about".
Link said to himself as he dozed off again. But, inside the room's closet, a red eye emitted
from the darkness, then seconds later, it dissapeared.

*tomorrow morning*

the arena's seats were once again, filled the excited spectators, waiting for the first semifinal round to begin. Once again the announcer yelled,
"the first match of the day will start in 10 minutes."
As Link was getting ready for his big match, Leon walked up to him and said,

"good luck with your match!" as he patted link's shoulder.
"yeah... good luck to you also". Link replied. as Leon walked out of the dressing room,
Link's opponent Leonardo took a seat beside him.

He wore an un zipped Onyx jacket, he had silver tinted hair, and wore tight blue pants.
"don't even bother entering that arena, or it's your funeral" he warned.
"heh, we'll see about that" Link said, smirking at his opponent.

"Ladies and Gentlemen!" the announcer yelled, "the fighters of this match will be Link vs. Leonardo"!.
As the two once again entered the large stadium, the announcer started to countdown.
"3..." the opponents unsheathed their weapons, "2..." as they both stared at eachother they gripped their swords tightly. "1...BEGIN!" The announcer yelled, and the match had begun.

Instantley, link took out his hookshot, and fired it at leonardo's sword. The chain wrapped around
the blade of his weapon, "what is that contraption?!?" Leonardo said, stunned. As Link hit the return button, Leonardo's sword flew out of his hand, as the sword flew in the air, Link catched it.
Now, a weaponless leonardo, took a knife out of his pocket, and charged at the hero of time.
The thing was, link's weapon had a farther reach, he swiped at Leonardo, he fell to the ground with a large gash along his chest.

As Link threw Leonardo's sword beside him, The announcer yelled "Link is the winner! he will be going to the finals! now will the next two challengers,please step forward," he yelled as Leon, and Jerimiah stepped onto the bloodied arena, where Leonardo was put on a stretcher, and taken away.
"3....2....1... BEGIN!" yelled the announcer.

As Jerimiah leaped at Leon, sword drawn, he slashed downwards, only to hit air.
Leon was now behind him. He grabbed his arm,twisting it back enough that it broke, and then kneeing him in the back. As Jerimiah screamed in pain, Leon held his Wa Dao at his head.
"This match is over." Leon said quietly. As the perimedics came out once again to pick up Jerimiah, the announcer yelled "Leon is going to the finals! so that means it will all end up with a battle between him and Link! The finals will begin in 20 minutes.

*20 minutes later*

The audience cheered wildly as the two entered the arena for the last time. "Good luck, Leon" said Link,
as he unsheathed the gleaming Master sword. "Good luck to you too, freind", Leon Replied as heunsheathed
Wa Dao. "3....2.....1....BEGIN!" the announcer yelled.

at the same moment, the two fighters started to glow immensley. it looked like they were going to both use soul charge to end the battle quickly. as the two chrged at eachother and started to swing their swords, a bright light emitted in the middle of the two.

************************

As link opened his eyes, he was shocked to see that a figure in dark armour stopped both his, and Leon's attack, with both of his hands. "Th..that's the man from my dreams!" Link shouted. That's when the giant sword on the figure's back, started to glow, and an eye appeared on it.

" I... it can't be!" Mitsurugi yelled with fear as he got out of his seat.
"Th.. Thats Nightmare!" he screamed in horror.

TO BE CONTINUED....

*********************************************************

CHAPTER 8, PART:2

"Th..thats Nightmare!" Mitsurugi yelled with fright. As the two opponents both looked at the armoured, villain, his sword's eye staed at Link with a peircing glare, while Nightmare had his eyes set on Leon.
as the audience screamed in horror, the dark night said with a cold, evil voice.

"That finishing blow would have killed you two." He started to say. "But my master wants you both alive."
"wh..what for?" Link started to say, trembling." i'm afraid I cannot tell you that," he said, "but my master, he still hungers..." he said in a more maniacal tone, as he looked at the escaping audience.

Then, in a flash, Nightmare was gone, but Leon and Link could here the blood of innocent bystanders being spilt. As the two ran towards the slashing sound, they were shocked to see the numerous bodies that were on the ground. This enraged the two, and they started to glow, but they could feel the pain coming because they weren't supposed to use soul charge twice in one day.

"persistent little bugs, aren't you?" nightmare said, as he took his Sword out of a dead body.
"Master said he only needed one of you, so..." Nightmare said joyfully, as he leaped for Link.

***************************

As Soul edge started to come down, there was a Loud clanging noice. As link opened his eyes, he was shocked to see that Mitsurugi was in front of him, blocking Nightmare's demonic blade with Shishi-oh.
"Hmmmmmm..." nightmare thought. "This one is more powerful than the two behind him, I think I shall dispose of him".

As Mitsurugi was having trouble with holding the unholy weapon, link and Leon tried to intervene, but froze with agonizing pain. "This is THE END!" nightmare yelled as he brought his sword down once again.
The slash not only broke Shishi-oh, but also left Mitsurugi on the ground, with a pool of blood emmiting
under the fallen warrior.

"consider yourselves lucky." Nightmare said to the frozen Leon and Link, as he teleported in a flash.
As Leon and Link also fell to the ground. And all went black.

***********************************************************

CHAPTER 9

"Link, wake up!" said a familiar voice.
"wh...what happened?" Link mumbled, "we passed out after the confrontation with nightmare,"
Leon explained, "the officials that survived found us lying on the ground, they could tell that we were still breathing, so they took us to the infirmary." Leon said.
"w...where is mitsurugi?" link asked worringly,
"don't worry, he's safe." Leon said calmly.

"the officials told us to meet them in the arena in one hour, to discuss this matter". leon said
"man, I hope Mitsurugi will be alright" Link said.

*one hour later*

As the two walked towards the arena, they saw three men inside it already.
"Gentlemen..." one man started to say, "we have approved that both of you are worthy of passing through
Regulus's gate." he said, " your skills are fantastic," another man stated, " here is a map, that should lead you to europe," he said " there will be many hardships ahead of you" the last man said,
"but you two will pull through." He said " leave us to treat to the wounded". The man on the right said.
" now, say goodbye to your freind, Mitsurugi, then you can head off into the world!" he said.

******************************

Nightmare had already begun to feel stronger, because of all the souls Soul Edge absorbed.
"Good job Nightmare!" Said the unknown voice once again. "I have a feeling that your fight against one of those two will be entertaining!" it said with a chuckle. " now, go to france, and bring me more souls!"
it said, "yes, master Isuka," Nightmare said, and with a flash, he was gone.

******************************

"well, I guess this is it." Link said to his once mentor. " we'll see each other on the road sometime soon," Leon stated, "i'm sure of it." well, see ya !" Link yelled to Leon while walking towards the sunset." As Link and Leon set out in diffrent directions, Link set off to the west.

Four hours into his journey, the sun was starting to burn Link's skin as it turned to a light pink,
as link checked his map, he had just entered the small country of Thuban
when, on the other side of a grassy hill, he found a small river leading to the west,
"now, how am I gonna cross this?" link wondered, as he looked around for a way to cross.
That was when link spotted a little ferry in the corner of his eye.

As Link ran towards the ferry, it had looked like it was abandoned long ago, but the ferry looked like it could cross the river with no problems. As Link got on the ferry, and picked up the oar, ready to take off, a man, came out of nowhere and yelled at Link "Hey kid! that's my ferry!" Link looked at the man, and could tell by the way the man dressed, he was a theif.
"now, if you want to cross the river, your going to have to give me all the gold you possess."
The man said as he held out his hand. Link could see the machete on the man's belt, so he wouldn't take no for an answer.

Link sighed as he unsheathed the master sword, "if I hit him with the flat side of my sword a couple times," he thought, "he'll probably run away and leave me alone."
As the man took his machete out of his belt, "so you want to die eh, pointy ears?" the man said mockingly.
He shouldn't have said that, Link's flat side of his sword came crashing down on the man's head.
As blood trickled down his face, he screamed in agony as he ran away, holding his head in pain.
"well," Link started to say as he sheathed his sword, "that was easy".

As Link crossed the large thuban river, his stomach started to rumble. "oh, I should have took some food with me". As Link said, holding stomach. Thats when he saw a little village on the other side of the river. "FOOD!!!" Link yelled with glee as he paddled very quickly to the other side.

Link's journey had just begun.

CHAPTER 10

"FOOD!" Link yelled, as he dashed towards the village, as he ran to the center of the small village, he stopped to look around him. There were windmills everywhere, most of them were put on hills.
"Whats with all the windmills?" Link asked the man that was standing beside him.

"We use those windmills there to create energy, so that we can light up our village", he said.
thats when Link heard the cheering of people, so he walked towards the noise, and he saw that a giant group of people were situated around a windmill. They were all looking upwards, so, Link did too, and he could see two people fighting on the windmill, after a few hits, one opponent came crashing to the ground.

"next" said the person who was still on the windmill. Thats when everyone started to look at link,
"what?" Link asked quite annoyed at the people who were blindly staring at him.
"that pointy eared guy has a sword, he's the next challenger!" a young boy yelled, while Link was not amused, then he said to himself , "aaargh, oh well, hey! if I win, they might give me free food!" Link said happily, as he started up the ladder to the windmill arena.

As the crowd cheered, Link looked up at his opponent, it was a young Asian girl with two elbow blades.
"are you ready for defeat?" the young girl asked "I should be asking you that question!" Link said back,
"then, we shall fight to decide who is right, or who is wrong..." she said as she leaped for Link.

As link dodged the attack, he lost his footing and fell to the ground. "man, it sure is windy," link thought to himself, "and being so high up isn;t making it better". As the young girl tried to slash Link again, Link blocked with his hylian sheild, then he took out his boomerang, and threw it at the young girl, it hit her, and knocked her off guard, as she fell to the ground.

As she tried to get up, link pointed his sword at her, "it looks like in the end, I won!" link said as he held out his hand to help her off the ground, "you were only lucky that time" the girl said. Link smiled, as they climbed down the ladder.

The crowd started to cheer frantically at Link, offering him a place to stay at their house.
"No thanks..." Link said, "i'll just stay at an inn.." said Link as he started to walk to an inn,
He got a free room and every thing.

As he was eating dinner, A group of people started to walk towards his table.
"Kid, we need your help" The man started to say, "what for mister?" Link asked politley,
in the northern area of our village, there is a mine that gives us all our water, but the workers there
aren't getting enough money, so they are poisoning our water". The Man said.

"none of us are strong enough to beat him, but after we saw your fight earlier today, we had hopes that you could stop those miners, so that we can have pure water, so what do you say?" The man asked desperatley, "okay..." Link said " but I get three more nights here, and all I can eat buffet, for free."
"done. Now can you go tomorrow?" the man asked "sure, i'll head out for the mines tomorrow morning!"
Link said.

**********************************************************

CHAPTER 11 PART: 1

Link yawned, as he rose out of the inn's comfy bed. Then he had remembered that today, was the day he was to travel to the mines, risking his life once again. He then walked down to the dining room for some breakfast, then he was to head off.

As he was sipping on some hot porridge, a girl opened the Inn's door, and started to walk over to Link's table. As link looked up at the girl with porridge in his mouth, He could tell it was the girl that he defeated yesterday. There was a huge bruise on her left arm, from the boomerang Link threw at her during their fight. Then the girl looked at the hero straight in the eyes, and yelled at him quite loudly, "I'm coming with you!".

By then Link had spewed out most of the porridge that was in his mouth at the time. after he drank some water, he replied to the girl's demand, "wh...what did you say?" Link asked, but he already knew what she said. "I am stronger than all of the men in this village," she began to say, "I thought that I can be some backup, in case something went wrong," she said innocentley, "wh..what would your parents say?" link asked. He knew that was the wrong thing to say, because after he blathered that out, Talim looked at the ground, and started to tear a bit.

"My mother died, when I was a baby," she started to say, sobbing a little bit, " my father, is the cheif of this village, but doesn't notice me at all!" she said, trying really hard not to cry. People in the dining room were starting to stare at link, like he did something wrong. "But if I can help clean out the village's water, my father may ackagknowledge, me as a hero, and everyone will look up to me.

Thats when link also looked at the ground, with a frown on his face, "I never met my parents"{ he started to say, "they both died right after I was born," then he looked up at the girl, "I guess you can tag along," he said. The girl now had a giant smile on her face.

"Thank you mister!" she said "oops, i havn't even introduced myself" she told him, "I'm talim, who are you?" she asked him, "I'm link," he told Talim, "pleased to meet you" she said happily, "but maybe we should train for a bit, before we head off," link suggested, "okay then... Meet me infront of the tallest wind windmill in three hours", She said as she headed out the door.

After link had finished up what was left of his porridge, he walked up to his room to get dressed.
He put on his kokiri tunic, slipped on his Kokiri boots, buckled the sheathe to a second belt, then put it on his back, then, he put the hylian sheild on his back, covering up most of the sheathe, and finally, grabbed the Master sword, as the light coming from the window reflected off the magical blade, Link put the sword in it's sheathe, then walked out of his rented room.

As he entered the Inn's bar, he saw the bar tender behind a counter, polishing a beer mug. Link walked up to him, "aren't you a little young to be drinking?" The bartender asked link, "i'm not here to drink, but do you know where a quiet place is?" he asked him, "well, we have the back yard, you can go there
if you want," he told him, "thanks" Link said as he walked out the back door.

As Link stepped into the back yard, he didn't see a backyard, he saw a back feild. the yard was probably larger than Lon lon ranch. "Perfect!" Link said to himself, as he unsheathed his Master sword and begun his training. The children watched Link to flips, rolls, and sword swipes at air, for hours, until he was finally finished.

Link drank some milk in the bar, then headed out to meet Talim. As he spotted the giant windmill, he started to run towards it. Once he got to the base of the mill, Talim was there, already waiting for him,
"your late!" talim told Link, "oh well, the way to the mines is through that gate she said.

***************************

As the two ventured through a large feild, link noticed that it was getting hotter, and hotter with every step that he took. "We are entering Thuban desert!" Talim told an over heated Link. " great, another desert" Link said to himself, as memories from the Gerudo desert came flooding back to him.

After 20 minutes in the heat, Link had taken off his shirt part of his tunic, and tied it around his waist . the scorching heat was getting worse and worse. "When are we going to be at that stupid mine?" Link asked as he wiped a litre of sweat off his forehead. "just 10 more minutes" Talim said cheerfully.
Link couldn't understand how Talim could take the heat so easily.

10 minutes felt like 10 centuries, as Link fell to the soft sand and was ready to pass out from the heat.
"Link, get up!" Talim said as she helped Link to his feet. As Link spat out the sand that had entered his mouth, he looked up and saw a giant rock infront of them. "Thats Minkar mine!" Talim said, pointing to the over-sized rock.

As they entered the mine, Link noticed that it was quite cool inside. As he put his shirt back on, Talim had already found a way to get farther into the mines. "this is what we'll use to get farther in the mines" Talim said as she pointed to a mine cart. As Talim jumped in, Link grumbled, as he started to push the cart. As it started to move by itself, Link jumped into the back of the cart.

As It went down hill at extremley fast speeds, link screamed, as Talim was enjoying it. "I thought I had the triforce of COURAGE!" Link thought to himself still screaming. As they went deeper and deeper into the mines, they were not aware that people were waiting for them at the end of the track.

TO BE CONTINUED....

*****************************************************************
CHAPTER 11 PART 2

As the two companions raced in the mine cart, they could see the end of the track, and the people that were waiting for them. Right before the cart stopped, Link and Talim jumped out, unsheathing their weapons, Link wacked one of the miners, in the fore head with the flat side of the master sword. As the unconcious miner hit the ground, Talim had already downed her opponent"lets keep moving" Link told his partner. as they passed through the stone catacombs, they could see a person, at the end of the long halway. "I'll try to get him here, so we don't need to fight him," link told Talim, as he took out his fairy bow.

As the person was getting closer, Link pulled back on the string of his bow, and fired. The arrow met it's target, except, it hit it's target's weapon. As the broken arrow ht the ground, the man was getting closer and closer, until Link put his hylian sheild on his left hand, and charged at him.

As Link was getting closer to the man, the master sword started to come down on the man's head.
But it only hit air, because the man, myseriously dissapeared. then, Link felt a sharp pain in his back. He looked around and he saw the man, then he looked at his blade, and saw blood dripping from the tip of it. Then he vanished again. He wondered with these kind of powers, why are they working as miners?.
Link stopped thinking and turned around to try and see his vanashing opponent, but to no avail.

As Link took out his arrows, he yelled "Light Arrow!" As his strung arrow, glowed with a bright yellow light. As he strung the arrow as far as he could, he fired at the end of the halway, and fired. As the light arrow, exploded on impact, a giant light explosion appeared, thats when he saw his opponent's shadow, "I have you now!" Link thought to himself, as he ran towards the shadow, master sword drawn, it came down in a smooth movement, As Link heard a curdling scream, his opponent reapeared, but was on the ground, with a huge vertical slash across his chest.

As the two passed through the catacombs, they came upon a giant arena, that was covered in ice. Around the arena was all black, so if you were to fall off, there was no coming back. As they knew they were going to fight someone, they unsheathed their weapons once again, as an opponent appeared infront of them. He drew his sword, and the battle begun. The opponent wore very thick armour on. As Link slashed the man, the only thing that hurt was Link's hand. "OWWWWW!" Link yelled as he held his, now red hand.

but then they noticed that he couldn't move very fast, so Talim came up with a plan. "Come on big guy!" Talim said to him, as he walked towards Talim, Link with his enhanced body movements, suddenly jumoed on the giants back. then he wacked the giant's back with the master sword, as if it were a piggy-back ride.
Then once they were near the edge of the arena, Link flipped over his head, came down and wacked the giant off the arena. Too bad Talim was near the giant as he fell, because he wacked her in the face with one of his wailing arms.

But she held onto the side of the arena for dear life. But it was slipery, because of the ice.
"Hold on!" Yelled Link as he grabbed Talim's arm and tried to pull her up, but the surface was too slippery, and link fell to the ground, "come on Link, Think!" Link thought "I got it!" Link stepped back a few steps, then took out his hookshot. he hit the button, and the spring-loaded chain popped out.
As the chain. Plopped near Talim, Link yelled "Grab the chain" and Talim grabbed it.

As Link hit the return button, the chain started to come back, and it was plling Talim up too.
Link's plan had worked! As Talim got on her own two feet, Link came over to her. "are you okay?" Link said. " yeah i'm fine" Talim said. "There is one more room in the mines". Talim told Link as they headed towards the exit.

As they entered the boss's room, they found they were in a caged arena, otside the cage, was lava.
there was also a ring of Lava around the arena. Then the man in the middle of the room asked "what do you want?" "were here because your mines are poisoning the water, and we like it for you to stop it." Link told him. As the man chuckled a bit, he said "I guess you will have to kill me to make the water go back to normal." He told them. "sounds reasonable..." Link said, once again unsheathing the master sword, as Talim took out her elbow blades. the battle had begun.

As the man's giant sword swung at Talim, she tried to block, but the sword still hit skin. As she fell to the ground, with a giant gash across her back, link went into a rage, as the triforce symbol on his left hand started to glow brightly, as he leaped, and took a slice at the man's head. The man dodged the attack, Link grabbed his arm and threw himself up on the man's arm. As Link did the impossible, he started to run cross the man's shoulders and jumped off the man's other arm grabbing his sleeve, and threw him towards the ring of fire. The man's head hit the cage, and knocked himself unconsious.
The only problem was that his unconcious body was laying on lava. As he burned, Link grabbed Talim, and ran back to the village, as Link collapsed. The villagers, looked at the water flow. It turned from purple, to crystal clear again.

As Link opened his eyes, he couldn't feel the pain in his back anymore. He was in an infirmary.
he looked around, and saw Talim in a bed, seeping. Link relaxed, and went back to sleep.

*******************

*three days later*

"well, I guess i'll be heading out." Link said. Talim yelled to him, "wait!" as she ran over to Link.
"what is it?" Link asked, then Talim went up to Link, and kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you" Talim whispered to him. A now blushing link held his cheek with his hand as he left the village. As the villagers waved good bye, Link checked his map, he was headed towards the bustling city of Benetnasch.
As Link put away his map, he ventured out of the borders of Thuban, and into the rest of the world, as he was one step closer to stopping soul edge.

CHAPTER 12

Link was traveling through a dense forest, he was already inside Benetnasch.
"AAARGH, stupid bugs!" Link yelled in annoyance, as he slapped his face, killing another insect.
As Link followed the dirt path in the ground, he heard some rustling in the bushes. He knew a thief of some sort. He sighed, he took out a navy coloured bomb, lit a match up, ignited the bomb, and threw it in the rustling bush. As Link could hear the sizzling of the bomb's fuse, a man jumped out of the bush, and ran out of the forest, terrified.

as link put his finger on his tongue, he defused the bomb by putting the wet finger on the lit fuse, and put the bomb back in his pocket. Another hour went by as Link finally exited the forest. "phew... i'm finally out" Link said with releif. Link had now entered another feild, about twice the size of hyrule feild. "great... ANOTHER feild" link sulked as he walked through the giant feild.

At night fall, Link had finally made it through the feild, thats when Link heard his stomach rumble.
"oooooh.... i'm hungry..." Link said, as he checked his pockets, he pulled out 27 gold peices.
"hrmph" Link groaned, "this will probably only get me a turkey dinner! awww man" Link groaned again, as he put the gold back in his pocket.

After a while, Link found a bustling village. "what?" Link wondered, "why is the village so alive in the middle of the night?... oh well, as long as I can get something to eat, i'm okay with that," Link said confidentley, as he walked towards the village. As he walked towards the gate, two guards were standing there. They held two Javelins. "great..." Link thought, as he started to walk towards the guards, thats when one guard stepped out of line. As link saw him, he drew his sword, and pointed it at the soilder.

"wh..what did I do?" The guard said innocentley, "I was just going to say welcome!" The guard said. "oh,"
Link said, as he sheathed the master sword. "I'm terribly sorry about all that" link said, a little embarrased, "yeah, whatever..." The guard said, "enjoy the carnival.." That caught Link's attention, "whats this carnival you speak of?" Link asked the guard.

"Every year, this village has a carnival, to celebrate good harvests and what not, there are many attractions like puppet shows, sword tournaments and eating contests" the guard said. "you mean I can eat all I want, for free?!?" Link asked the guard "yes, its a contest, whoever eats the most without being sick is the winner!" The guard told him. "Are you going to be in that?" The guard asked. "Oh yeah!" Link said, his mouth already watering, "well, it starts in 10 minutes, better hurry up if you want to make it". the guard said, but already, Link was already ran past the guards, and headed towards the smell of food.

Once link got their, he joined into the competition. before the countdown started, a large man beside him said, "prepare to lose, pointy ears!" this provoked Link, as he tied a napkin around his neck.
Link was at an advantage, because hylians can eat for hours, and not get full. He had this contest in the bag. The announcer started to count down, "3...2....1...BEGIN!" he yelled, as Link stuffed his face with turkey.

On the other side of the town, the pupputeer was putting on a play, for the small children of the village,
but for some reason, the puppet, started to glow, and it grew, to a human size, The man jumped back, as all the children scurried away. Then in the middle of the glowing puppet, a giant eye appeared.

By then, the champions from the sword tournament, came rushing towards the creature, with their weapons drawed, one man swung at the puppet, but the creature, grabbed the blade with his bare hand, grabbed the weapon out of the warrior's hand, and then stabbed him with his own weapon.

As the eating contest, endured, Link had already finished 5 plates of food, where as the man beside him was just starting his 4th. "haha!" Link muffled to the man, "who's the winner now, huh?" Link said with a large grin on his face. But just then Link could see in the corner of his eye, a giant puppet was killing people. As everyone saw the oversized puppet, with a bloodied sword in his hand, everyone screamed, and ran away, well, everyone except the hero of time.

As Link jumped at the puppet, drawing the Master sword, Link came down on the puppet, but the puppet easily dodged the oncoming attack, and kicked a defensless Link in the rib. As Link fell to the ground, holding his side with agony, he got up and wondered how he was going to defeat the monstrosity.
Thats when he spotted a large gorge with a rivine at the bottom, he then thought "If I can get that puppet down there, he won't be able to get back up!" Link thought, as he once again, charged at the puppet.

when Link had lured the puppet close enough to the ravine, he hit the puppet with a horizontal
slice, although he still blocked it. But Link wasn't done, thats when, he went for a lower slice to the legs, thats when the puppet crouched and blocked. thats what Link was hoping for, then with a fake out, link's sword came back up for a high strike. The puppet couldn't think fast enough. It was a direct hit.
As the puppet flew into the sky, he fell, into the chasm. and made a large splash when it hit the water.

Once Link got back up he felt a sharp pain near his waist, he knew it was the metal fragment, so he took it out, it was glowing brighter than usual. Just then the eye of the puppet flew out of the gorge and in a bright light, went back into the fragment. Link was shocked by this. As he wondered what other evil powers the fragment had. And if that was just a fragment of Soul edge's power, Link knew that he was in trouble. "If i can barely win against a fragment of soul edge, how can I possibly win against the whole sword?" he thought as he looked for survivors.

*****************************************************************

CHAPTER 13

Link yawned, as he entered yet, another village in Benetnasch. But what was diffrent about this village, was that no one was seen on the streets of the village.

"hmmmm....thats weird its the middle of the day too..." Link thought to himself as he walked a few more steps. When he saw the signs on the houses, they were all BARs.

"oh well," Link said as he entered one of the bars, "I could use a good drink" he said as the jingle of the door was heard throughout the entire building. As Link looked around for a seat, he could see that everyone carried a weapon with them. "Wouldn't want to bother them" Link said as he spotted a seat at the counter.

As Link sat down, the bar tender looked at him in an odd fashion,

"hey, kid!" the bartender said to Link, "your too young to have some of this stuff". Link replied to the bartender. "nah, I just want a cold glass of milk," Link said, as every one stared at him. Thats when an
inbriated man walked up to Link in a stuttering fashion, still holding his ale, he said.

"Hey, you picking a fight with me?" The man said as he almost fell over, "leave me alone" link told the man. As Link's milk got served to him, the man thought this was the oppurtunity to really make him mad.
"hey , do you always drink milk like a little kid?" The ma said to Link, hoping to get a reaction, but Link just ignored him, as he drank his cold milk, "and whats with the pointed ears?" the man said.

Just then, Link bashed the man in the head with the master sword's hilt, and dragged him out side. He told the bartender, "i'll come back for the milk". As Link threw the drunk man to the pavement, Link told him, "draw your weapon, funny guy" as Link took out the hylian sheild.

As the man took out his chinese sword, he charged at Link in a drunken rage, but link easily stepped out of harm's way, and bashed the man's back with the hilt. As the man stuttered back, he took out three throwing knives, "lets see if you can dodge this?" than said as he threw the three knives at Link.

"easy" Link said as he put up the hylian sheild, and all three knives reflected off. As the knives hit the ground, the man took out his sword once again, and charged at the hero, as his sword came down, Link rolled behind the man, and put the master sword right beside the man's neck, "it's over" Link said to the man.

The man knew he was defeated, so he layed flat on the pavement, as Link took his sword, and went back towards the bar. But just then, the man got back up, and took out a 2 foot knife and charged towards Link.
As Link knew that this would happen, he didn't unsheathe his sword. As the knife was coming down, Link put the master sword behind his back, blocking the knife attack without even looking.

Then Link kicked the man in the gut. As the man flew back, and hit the ground, Link turned to him and said
"know your place, scum". As Link re-entered the bar, everyone looked at him in fear. Link went up to the bartender and asked why everyone looked afraid, the man responed "that is Yunsung, the tougest man in the bar," The man started to tell Link, "and you beat him without breaking a sweat!" The man said.

"He had it coming..." Link said,as he drank the last of his milk. As he headed out, Yunsung walked towards Link and said angrily, "this isn't over". Then Link punched Yunsung in the gut, and said
"yes it is".

As Link exited the BAR village, he could see a giant lake ahead, with another small village.
"looks freindly" link said happily, as he traveled to the port town. not knowing of what would happen
next...

********************************************************************

CHAPTER 14

Once Link finally reached the small port, he looked out to the lake. There were mountains on each side of it, so there was no going around it, so he would have to cross over the lake to continue forward.
Link looked around for a ferry of some sort, until he finally found one.

"okay, so i'll eat something first, then head out," Link thought to himself, as he entered a nearby Resturaunt. Once he entered, there was no one else inside the facility, he also saw a rusty anchor attached to the wall, and a few pictures. As he sat down, the waiter right away came to his table, and gave ink the menu. "Wow, that was quick", Link said under his breath, as he checked their menu.

All the menu had was sea food, of course, so Link ordered a Lobster and shrimp. Even thought Link didn't know what a lobster or a shrimp was, it sounded tasty to him. After about half an hour, a waiter carrying a giant plate of sea food came to his table, and put the plate down. "enjoy"! The waiter said to Link, as he was walking away.

As Link put a few shrimps in his mouth, and chewed for a bit, he had never tasted anything this good before. "wow! this is reall-" Link smacked his head on the table, unconcious. "He's out, lets go" said one of the waiters.

***********************************

once Link woke up he held his head in pain, "ugh.... where am I?" Link said, as he looked around. He was in a jail cell." H..how did I get here"? Link asked himself, as he now noticed, his sword and sheild were gone, as were all his items. "aaargh" Link growled. As he put his hand into his boot, and pulled out out a clear cystaline diamond, with a green orb inside it. "good, they didn't take the spells" Link said to himself in releif.

As he stood up in his jail cell, Link put the diamond in the palm of his hands, and raised both hands to the air, and yelled, "Faroe's Wind!", then the diamond, emmited into a bright green light. And in a flash, Link dissapeared into the wind, and re-appeared on the other side of the cell.

"If i'm fighting unarmed, I should probably cast Nayru' love, so that I'll be safe". Link said, as he took out another diamond, but it had a blue orb inside of it. Then link put the diamond to his side, and as he put it over his head, the diamond turned into a blue light, then Link put his hands down. Then a blue diamond encased Link as if it was a giant sheild. and he headed towards the exit.

Once he spotted the first enemy, Link could tell that he was a pirate, so he walked up slowly behind him, and then, propeller kicked him in the face. Once the other pirates spotted the young hero, they started the alarm.

As Link punched and kicked his wa through countless pirates, he finally spotted a room that contained all of Link's weapons. "they were dumb to not to lock my weapons away," Link said to himself as he turned to about 12 pirates blocking his way out of the room. Link chuckled, as he put the gleaming Master sword behind his back. Thats when the sword emitted into a blazing inferno, and Link yelled "KI TEN GIRI"!
As he spun around in a fury of speed.

Once all the pirates hit the ground, Link dashed towards the exit. As he saw the light of day, he jumped out of the pirate ship he was being held captive in. And then headed towards the ferry. That is until a giant pirate appeared before him. Link yelled in fright as he fell over. The Pirate laughed, as he pointed one of his two swords at link.

"You fool" The pirate told Link in a cold rough voice. "No one escapes from my ship and survives" He said.
Link got up, and unsheathed his sword. The pirate laughed again, as he teleported behind Link, and kicked him in the back. As Link hit the ground, The pirate said. " you will now meet your end, by the hands of captain Cervantes.

As Link got up again, he took out his bow and strung an arrow to it, and fired at the Pirate captain. But it did not hit it's target. As he teleported behind Link again, Link took out his sword, and blocked Cervante's attack. As they both jumped back, Link took out a bomb and lit it. As he dashed towards the dreaded pirate captain, he threw the bomb at his feet. Cervantes didn't move, as the bomb exploded.

As Link jumped away from the grey smoke that had emitted from the bomb, Link sighed in releif as he walked away. Thats when Link felt a sharp pain in his back. As he turned around, he had seen that Cervantes was behind him, with a bloodied sword.

Link turned around, and swung his sword at the captain, but the sword went through his body. cervantes laughed again as he punched Link in the gut. "You fool, there is no way you can kill something,THATS ALREADY DEAD!" He yelled at a bruised Link.

As Link got up once again, he thought of something, "play this song to a burdened soul, and it will rest in peice" said the happy mask salesman. "THATS IT!" Link said joyfully, as he pulled out his ocarina of time. "What are you going to do with that peice of junk?" Cervantes said, as he lunged at Link.

Then link started to play a sad tune on his ocarina. It was as if everything went in slow motion. Then Link played the song of healing. A song that lifted anything that was bound to the earth once they perished. That was when cervantes stopped dead in his tracks, and started to scream in agony.

As he fellto his knees, his body started to fade away, as Link put away the Ocarina, Cervante's body was no where to be found. As Link turnned to the ferry one last time, he got on the ferry and headed out to the lake. Link checked his map. He was about to enter the country of mizar. As Link drifted out, the sun had already setted. And was one step closer to destroying the demonic blade.

CHAPTER 15

As Link's oar hit the crystal clear water, the sun started to rise. He had been rowing for the entire night. Link fell back onto the wooden ferry, exhausted.

"how long is this lake?" Link said to himself, out of breath. he sat back up, picked up his oar, and started rowing once again. After about 20 more minutes of conecutive rowing, Link had finally hit shore.
As he stepped down on land, he could see that this country was very mountaneous.

"hmph" Link grumbled. "I guess I'd better get started then" Link sighed, as he started to walk.
Mountains were on each side of the giant field Link was venturing through. "Why are there so many fields?" Link said to himself, quite annoyed.

After Link had walked up a giant hill, he could see over the horizon, a giant temple as wide as the field was. "well, there's no going around that", Link said, as he ran down the hill he was on. As Link got closer to the temple, the more ancient it looked.

As Link came up to the temple's entrance, he could see that the inside was very dark, so before he went in, Link ignited his lantern, and attached it to his belt. And then Link had walked into the darkness.
As the lantern lit his way through, Link thought the temple looked more like maze. "great, a maze in the dark," Link said as he unsheathed the master sword, in case anything jumped out at him.

As Link ventured deeper and deeper into the darkness, he could hear swords clashing with eachother.
by now, Link had become very cautious. Thats when he heard a deadly slashing noise, and the clanging of swords stopped. Link now knew for sure, he was not alone.

*******************************

As Link turned turned left, he could see that there was a light at the end of a narrow dark hallway. But he could hear foot steps, echoing in the darkness. As Link clutched the master sword even harder, he walked towards the light. As the foot steps were getting closer and closer, Link was getting more and more frightened.

As Link finally reached the corner of where the light was coming from, he peaked out, and saw that there was a huge arena, in the middle of the hugest room in the temple. And in the middle of the arena, there was a figure. Link stepped out, so that the figure could see him. It was a female with white hair that stood in the hero's way.

As Link started to walk towards the woman, he could see that in her right hand, she held a sword. Also link could see the fallen warrior behind her. A pool of blood emitting from under him.
The woman said to Link in a cold voice, "you know, I now have to kill you" As Link took out his Hylian sheild, he smirked in confidence, "I just killed a dead pirate captain, do you really think you can beat me?" Link said.

The woman gasped as she just heard something she didn't want to hear. "Y...you killed my father?" the woman said with a now angry look in her face, "it was my mission to kill him!" She yelled. "Now that you killed him, you will now definatley die!" She screamed furiosly. As Link readied his sword, the woman lunged at Link.

As Link put up his hylian sheild, as the crazed woman's sword came plunging down. He blocked her vicous attack, but lost his footing. as Link hit the rock ground, the woman's sword once again, came down, but link dodged, by rolling away. As Link stood up, he took out his fairy's bow, and aimed the strung arrow at the enraged woman.

The woman smiled and said "Valintine, extend!" After she said that, her sword popped out of it's hilt, and the blade was connected by a thick string. As Link's eyes widened in fear, he jumped back, as the woman started to slash around her sword as if it was a whip.

Thats when Link had an idea. He stood where he was, and the woman thrusted her whip like sword at Link.
Only for the blade to be coiled around the master sword. Link smiled, as he started to pull on the sword, pulling the woman closer and closer to him.

The woman grinned, as she yelled "seperate!" thats when the sword's string, incinerated, and the peices of the blade were now floating in mid-air. Link cursed, as the floating blades were now flying towards him. As Link started to run away, he took out a clear crystal with an orange orb inside of it. Then link turned around, now running backwards, and put the crystal in the palm of his hand, and yelled, "Din's fire!" as he slammed his hand on the ground.

As the blades were coming closer, a giant ball of fire, surrounded Link, and started to expand. As the blades came in contact with the engulfing fire ball, they distintergrated, and the only thing that was left was dust, only to be swept away.

As the woman put her arms away from her eyes, she saw Link about to kick her in the forehead. As Link propellered kicked her in the head, she hit the ground with a loud bang. Link knew that she was unconcious, so he left her alone, and headed towards the temple's exit.

As Link exited the dark temple, he sighed in releif. As he looked up, he could see that there was a forest ahead of him. "Not another forest!" Link complained, as he entered the dense forest.
not knowing of what would come next on his journey.

*************************************************************


CHAPTER 16

As Link travled through the dense forest, he saw strange looking plants, that he had never seen before.
"Those are interesting..." Link said to himself, as he held up the colourful flower. That was when he could hear rustling in the bushes and trees. As Link unsheathed the Master sword cautiosly, an arrow, zoomed right by Link's left shoulder, and hit the unsheathing blade of evil's bane.

Link now knew, he had to run, if he was going to survive. As Link was running by bushes, arrows were coming out of them. "Wait," Link said, as he took out his hookshot, and attached the chain to a large tree. As he was now hanging from the tree, he tied the hookshot handle onto his belt, so he could use both hands, then, he took out his fairy's bow, and a bomb. As Link lit the bomb, he could see a group of theives, looking for Link.

As Link carefully put the bomb on the arrow head, the theives could hear a sizzling noise.
"What is that annoying noise?" One of the theives said. "your going to soon find out..." link said, under his breath, as he let go of the strung bomb arrow.

The bomb arrow landed in the middle of the group, and exploded. Thieves flew every where.
Some of the survivors flee'd the scene, only to be hacked down by a stange figure.
the thieves hit the ground with a large thump. "That's the lesson for today," the figure said, as Link got down from the large tree. "who are you?" Link asked, as he strung an arrow to his bow.

The figure stepped out of the shadows. the figure wore a white, and blue shirt, and had brown leatards on.
In her right hand, a small, but sharp sword. And in her left hand, a small blue circular sheild.
"calm down, I am not your enemy," The figure said. "I saw that you were having a little bit of trouble with the thieves back there". "thank you, for helping me," Link started to say, "who are you?" He asked the figure.

"My name is Cassandra Alexandra" The woman said, "and whats your name? "Link" he told Cassandra.
"Link, we should probably go to my village, its safer there," Cassandra told Link, as she started to walk.
"wait up!" Link said, racing up behind her.

"So, you are after Soul Edge huh?" Cassandra said to Link. "Yeah, its been almost a month since I left my town". Link said, not telling her that Link had come from another world.
" i've heard rumors that, the only way to defeat Soul edge, was with The legendary holy swrd, Soul Calibur." She said to a now confused Link, "Soul Calibur?" Link said.

"Soul calibur was made by the first weilder of Soul edge, King Schneider the fourth. He had made the holy weapon, after Soul Edge took over his body at night, and killed his own son." Cassandra said.
"So, where is this soul calibur?" Link asked her. "I have also heard rumors, that a man from this village has seen it. You should go check that out." Cassandra told Link.

As Link searched around for the man who saw Soul calibur, he finally found him at the general store, buying green apples. As Link ran up to him, "do you know where Soul calibur is?" He blurted out, so half of the village could hear it.

As the man covered Link's mouth, which was still trying to say something, the man said quietly, "come to my house", as he let go of Link's mouth, he followed the man to an old, rickety structure. As the two
entered the house, the man closed the door, and locked it. "So, you want to know where soul calibur is huh?" the man asked Link, "of course!" link said, "i'll use it to destroy Soul edge!". The man looked down at the ground, and closed his eyes. "Young man, I sense a great amount of courage inside of you."
He said to him. "I guess I can trust you." He said to a joyful Link.

"I found soul calibur 20 years ago, in Charon's pass. Found in western mizar, it is the only way to get into europe. But, now i know, that the King gave the legendary sword to the sage that lives inside the temple." The Man said. "But first, to prove yourself worthy, you must pass all of her tests of strength, courage, and wisdom." The Man told a now intrigued Link, "but no one has ever survived all of her tests.
I had to give up on the last test though," The man said. "whats the last test?" Link asked the man.
"Its the test of-" the man was cut off, by the banging on his front door.

As the man opened the door slightly, a tall man stood before him. "what do you want Lloyd?" the man asked,
Sir, the town is in danger." Lloyd said, trembling, "There are theives coming into town, they said they wanted to kill a man in a green shirt, and a weird ploppy hat." As Link heard that, he walked outside of the house, only to find out that he was surrounded.

"oh boy..." Link said to himself, as he took out a green crystal from his pocket.

********************************************************************


CHAPTER 17

**********************

By the time the group of thieves slashed at Link's body, he had already dissapeared into a green wind,
and reapeared on a nearby roof of a house.

"aargh," Link growled to himself, "I don't think I'll be able to use the spell's power for a while".

Link put the green coloured diamond back into his pocket. Link had teleported quite a ways from the group of bandits. As Link took out his bow, he put his finger onto his tongue, and then stook it out into the air.

"hmmmm..." Link thought, " The wind is blowing south, looks like its against me this time." Link strung his bow with an arrow. The arrow head was especially sharp. Link aimed his bow at a thief, who was looking for him.

"Din, guide this arrow to it's target," Link said, as he pulled back on the bow string. As he closed his right eye, he targeted once again at the thief's chest. Then Link fired.

The arrow soared through the sky. That was when unexpecting thief could hear a whistling noise behind him.
As the thief cursed under his breath, the arrow hit it's target dead on. The other bandits noticed the sound of the arrow, and also looked behind them. They saw thier friend, lying on the ground, with an arrow sticking out of him.

They looked up, and saw Link, still holding his bow.

"thats the guy!" one thief yelled, "lets kill him!" another thief yelled. By now, Link had jumped off the building's roof, and unsheathed the master sword, and Hylian shield.

The whole group of thieves were charging at the Hero of time. That's when Link strethced his sword arm out behind his body, and put his hylian sheild up. Then, the master sword, began to glow with an ocean blue light. The thieves stopped dead in thier tracks, as they could see all around them, that the entire village went dark.

Then, the master sword's glow changed from an ocean blue, to a blood red colour. It was as if, everything was being sucked up by the sword's energy.

"SUPER KAI-TEN GIRI!!!!" Link yelled at the top of his lungs, as he spun around very quickly. The thiefs thought it looked a little funny, so they had dropped thier guard.

Then, Link's red glowing sword, blew out a giant wave of energy towards the group.

As they screamed, the thieves turned, and ran in the other direction. Only to be hit with the sheer power of the red energy wave.

As the last burnt thief hit the ground, Link sheathed his sword and shield, and headed towards the old man's house once again.

************************************

"What?!?" the man screamed, "y..you mean you defeated ALL the thieves?" the man said, terrified by the young hylian's strength.

"yep," Link said, "it was quite easy actually." The man got out of his chair, and looked at Link with a stern look in his eyes.

"then you are worthy, to travel to charon's pass," he said. "Really?!?" Link said, with a grin on his face. "But first, can you tell me these tests?" The man sat back in his chair. "there are three tests all together. The test of power, the test of wisdom, and finally, the test of courage." The man said, as h looked down. "If you pass all the tests, you will be ackagknoledged as a true hero of men, and will be worthy enough to carry the holy blade, Soul Calibur.

"strange.." Link thought, "those are the names of the three triforces, courage, wisdom, power..."
The man stood up, once again.

"I failed on the last test, the test of courage. You will need to hone your mental skills, as well as your natural skills with a sword. Are you ready?" the man asked Link.

"Yes I am." Link said. "I need that legendary weapon, to destroy Soul edge!"
"very well," the man said as he looked up, "you will leave immediatley!"

As Link walked out of the village, he turned around and saw cassandra waving to him through a house window. Link waved back, as he turned back around, and headed towards the dreaded Charon's Pass. Where his skills will be put to the ultimate test.

*****************************

"Master Isuka..." Nightmare called out. "What is it?" Isuka responded, as he appeared beside the dark knight,
"The one with the pointed ears is headed towards Charon's pass, should I kill him?" Nightmare asked.
"no, we need him to get stronger, so when you do eventually kill him, his soul wil be powerful enough to revive me!" He said, after a quick chuckle.
"as you wish, master..." Nightmare said under his breath, as Isuka dissapeared.

Just then, A figure appeared out of the shadows. "who's there?" Nightmare said, as he pulled Soul edge out of the ground,

"I am not your enemy," the figure started to say, "I am here to help you".
Nightmare snorted, and responded to his words, "why would I need your help?"
The man chuckled and said, "I can observe the young man's strength, and report back to you.
"whats in it for you?" Nightmare said, as he put Soul edge back into the hard ground.
"nothing!" The man said, "I also, want to observe this man's ability as a fighter for my own purposes."
Nightmare, again looked at the man. "Fine, you can observe him, but return to me when you found out his real strength. Nightmare said to him.

"very well then," the man said, as he stepped back into the shadows.

CHAPTER 18: PART 1

******************************

"where is it?" Link asked himself, as he walked through the grassy fields of Mizar.
The sun had already set and the moon had just risen into the starry night.

Link had now spotted his destination. He saw a giant temple, with mountains on each side of it.
As Link entered Charon's Pass, he could feel it in his gut, that he would be risking it all.

******************************

"Master...." Nightmare called out, as he let go of a man who he had just killed.

"What is it?" Isuka responded, as he appeared once again, beside him.
"should we trust this man?" Nightmare asked.
"no, he's hiding something, i'm sure of it," Isuka said, as his formless body crept back into Soul Edge.
"once he comes back to us, kill him."

*****************************

Link looked around the inside of the temple. It looked exactley like the spirit temple from the Desert Colussus in Hyrule.

"So, where are these tests?" Link asked himself. Just then, a bright light emmitted from Link's pocket.
Link took out the metal fragement. It was glowing so brightly, that it was practically rumbling in his hands.

All of a sudden, Link dissapeared into a bright light, and reappeared inside of a dark room in front of three glowing figures.

"welcome," said one of the figures. "If you wish to possess the legendary Soul calibur,
then you will have to pass all three tests," another figure said.
"Let me introduce us to you, Link," another one said.

"h...how did you know my name?" Link asked, quite confused. "We were once from Hyrule," one said,
"we were second in command to the three godesses themselves," another figure said. "But, when the german king, hid soul calibur in days of yore," another said. "We volunteerly became the sages of this planet, to watch over the sacred blade, so that when the time was right, a true hero could weild it, and with it, destroy the demonic Zweihander, Soul Edge.

Link now understood. "so, what are your names?" he asked them.
"we actually don't remember our names, but I am the sage of power," the figure clothed in a red robe said.
"That is the sage of wisdom," she said as she pointed to the figure clothed in a blue robe.
"And that is the sage of courage." She pointed to a smaller figure clothed in a green robe.

"now, you will need to pass all of our tests if you want to obtain soul Calibur." the sage of power said,
"you will be teleported to the test's arena, and then do that test," She continued, "you will do my test first." She said, as she snapped her fingers. Then Link dissapeared in a bright light.

Link had reappeared, infront of a giant armoured monster. Link jumped back and drew the Master sword.
Thats when the sage of power appeared behind Link and said, "this is the test of power." She continued,
"there are no rules, you just need to take down this big guy, and then you have passed this test!" she said with a childish grin on her face.

"great, how am I going to take down this giant?" Link thought to himself.
"Begin!" the sage said, as she dissapeared. Link looked back at the armoured monster, who was 4 times his size. it held a giant sword and sheild.

As the monster charged at him, Link jumped into the air, dodging the monster's blow. As Link started to slash at the monster's back, only to be a slight annoyance to him, the monster swung his tail at the hero, whacking him straight in the gut, As Link fell down, holding his stomach in agony, the monster roared in victory.

Link got back up, spit some blood out of his mouth, and took out his bow. Link could feel 16 arrows in his Quiver. So he took out a bomb, and attached it to the arrow head, and lit the bomb.

As the Monster turned around, the bomb arrow, hit it's helmet, and exploded. Link smiled, as he was waiting for the smoke to pass. Then out of nowhere, the monster leaped out of the smoke, and grabbed link's body. The Monster then threw link at a stone wall.

Link got back up again, "how am I going to beat this thing?" he thought to himself, as he coughed up some more blood. That was when saw that the monster's helmet was gone. "If I can keep destroying his armour, I can slah at his body."

Link took out three arrows, and lit bombs on all of them, and fired. Most of the armour has been destroyed, and the only thing keeping the monster safe, was his chest plate. Link took out two more arrows, and fired them at the chest plate straps. They both snapped and the chest plate fell to the ground.

As the Monster was now defensless, Link drew the blade of evil's bane, and jumped towards the monster, and impaled the beast's head. As the monster was staggering, the Master sword fell out of it's head. and with that, the beast had hit the ground, and was not getting back up.

Link sighed in releif, as the sage of power appeared before him. "Very nice job!" She said, as she clapped her hands. "You've been fighting that thing for 5 hours, I thought you weren't going to make it!"
she said with a chuckle.

"here, i'll heal you, so you can be 100% ready for the next test." She said, as Link could feel his power returning to him. He could also feel more arrows in his quiver.
"Thank you" Link said happily.

"The next test begins NOW!" The sage of power yelled, as she snapped her fingers. And with that, Link dissapeared once again.

*********************************************************

CHAPTER 18 PART: 2

***************************

After the Sage of power teleported him, Link found himself in another part of the giant temple.
Only this time, the giant room wasn't an arena. Then, the sage of wisdom appeared before him.

"Welcome Link, To the test of wisdom." She told him, "the rules are simple." She continued,
"You just need to make it out of this dungeon alive." She said, with a large smile on her face.
Link wasn't smiling at all. "Also, you will know which room is the last one. Because, that room will be an arena, where you need to fight a giant Fire-breathing Dragon!"

"A fire-breathing WHAT?!?" Link yelled, now a little bit worried.

"do not woory," She sage began to say,"if you can trust your instincts, and the power of the triforce, i'm almost positive that you will make it out of here." She said." As Link walked up to the wooden door, that was leading him into a death trap, the sage said under her breath, "I'm sure he'll make it out alive... I think."

***************************

The mysterious man ran through the burnt country side. He checked his map again, he was only still in Antares.

"Hrmph," he growled, "I will have to meet him in Merak." The man said, as he put his map away.
"It is only a matter of time, Link!" The man said as he continued to run through the fields of Antares.

***************************

Link had entered a room with about 20 small jars. Just then, the Sage of wisdom's voice came out of no where, and talked to Link. "Do you see these jars?" She asked him, the hero nodded, "break them, and you will find supplies for your weapons". She said as her voice faded away.

Link broke a jar, just by kicking it. He found five arrows that were inside the jar.
Link put the five arrows in his quiver, as he smashed another jar. This time it had 6 bombs inside.
Once all the jars were broke, Link saw infront of him, two doors.

"which one should I take?" Link asked himself, as he put his hand out towards the left door. Just then, the back of his left hand started to glow with the Triforce symbol. Link now understood why it was glowing.

"I'm guessing, that the door that makes my hand glow, is the right door." Link said to himself.
"just to make sure..." Link said, as he walked towards the right door, and opened it. Just then, he could see a large set of spikes, come lunging at the hero.

Acting quickly, Link jumped out of harm's way, as the spikes obliterated the door, and his the stone wall.
As Link opened the left door, he could see that this new room, looked exactley like a forest.
"hmmm..." Link said I wonder if there are enemies in her-." Just then, a silver shuriken just missed Link's head, and stuck into the wooden wall.

As Link took out the blue crystal as quickly as he could, he held it in the air, it started to glow with an ocean blue colour. "NAYRU'S LOVE!" Link yelled as he put his arms to the side. The blue diamond once again, encased Link in a blue crystal.

As Link ran in an open area, he could see all the Shurikens that were stuck in the blue crystal's material. As Link could see the two doors, he held up his left hand quickly. It was glowing towards the right door. Just then, the blue crystal faded away into nothing. As Link cursed, the enemies in the bushes, readied thier shurikens.

**********************************

Nightmare had just killed a small group of fighters that dared to challenge him.

"fools..." Nightmare said, as the blue coloured souls were sucked into Soul Edge.
"I feel, stronger." Said Isuka, as he appeared in a shapeless form.
"Where is our little "partner" at?" Nightmare asked his master,
"he is now, just leaving the borders of Icarus peak." said Isuka.
"Then he should meet the pointy eared one, in Dubhe arena.
Nightmare said, as he let go of the dead man's shirt.

"soon boy," Nightmare said, "soon, I will fight you, and then kill you."
He laughed maniacally, as he dissapeared in a flash of light.

*********************************

Link was dodging every shuriken that came close to his body. Then, one came out of no where, and skimmed Link's cheek. As the blood was gushing down his face, Link had finally reached the doors, and took the right one.

Once he entered the new room, he could see an arrow head sticking out of the door behind him.
"looks like I just made it," Link said as he walked towards his next challenge.

his next challenge looked like a giant hallway, with a door at the end. As he walked towards the door, a giant man in armour appeared. Link could tell by the armour, and weapon, that it was an Iron Knuckle.
As Link unsheathed the master sword, the Iron knuckle, swept his giant axe at Link.

Link jumped back, and dodged the attack very easily. He emembered that Iron Knuckles, were very slow, so Link jumped at his foe, and broke it's armour in one strike. As The Iron knuckle ran towards the hero,
Link took out his bow, and put a bomb on the arrow head.

Link shot The Iron Knuckle head on, and half it's body exploded. The lifless body hit the ground, and then disintergrated. Link walked towards the door, but for some reason, his hand was not glowing.
Then, as he turned around, his hand glowed brightly towards a brick wall.

"I know what to use." Link said to himself, as he took out the lens of truth. He looked at the wall again, only to find a now visible door. Link opened the door and walked into the room.

"that was quick!" Lnk said,as he saw a giant sleeping dragon in the middle of the room.
As he tried to walk by it quietly, Bars fell down covering the door.
Link closed his eyes, and waited for the dragon, but the dragon didn't even move.

Link sighed in relief, as he started to walk again. Only to trip on the dragon's tail. Link cursed consecutivley, as the dragon woke up, and roared at Link. The dragon started to roar at Link.

Link took out his bow, and strung five bomb arrows. The dragon looked at Link, and he fired the five deadly explosive arrows at the dragon's head. Link thought he had won. But then the dragon, swiped it's tail, hitting Link, and making him fly behind the dragon. That was when he spotted the colourful crystal on it's back.

Now link knew for a fact, that if there was a crystal on the enemy, it was thier weak spot.
So Link tok out his hook shot, and fired it at the crystal. As the chain latched onto the crystal, it pulled Link up, who had already unsheathed his sword.

As Link held on for dear life, he managed to stay on long enough so that he can destroy the crystal. Link jabbed, and jabbed and jabbed until finally, the dragon fell to the ground, dead.

As Link jumped off the deceased behemoth, the sage of wisdom appeared before him. "Nice job! you have passed test two!" she said cheerfully, as she healed Link's wounds.

"The next test begins NOW!" She said, as she snapped her fingers. And link dissapeared into a bright light.

TO BE CONTINUED......

********************************************

CHAPTER 18: PART 3

*****************************

Link had appeared in a somewhat dark room.

"Why is it dark?" Link asked himself quietly, as he tried to look at his surroundings.
Just then, the Sage of Courage teleported in front of Link.

"Wow!" the small sage exclaimed, " i'm suprised you have made it this far!".
Link shrugged, as he waited to hear what his next challenge was.

"wait..." Link thought to himself, "wasn't this the test that the old man failed at?"
The Sage started to talk, which had already interrupted his train of thought.
"This is the final test of Charon's pass!" The sage garbed in green said happily.
"no one has ever passed this test, so are you ready?" The sage asked Link.

"Of course i'm ready!" Link said confidently.
"good!" The sage replied. "Now, this is the test of courage, also known as the test of fear."
The sage said cheerfully, as Link turned around as he heard the word, "fear".

"In other words, you will be fighting your worst fears! Doesn't that sound fun?" The sage asked mckingly.
"If you beat your worst fears, you will be worthy enough to hold onto the holy blade."
The Sage of Power snapped her fingers, and the room they were in, lit up.

"Good luck!" the Sage said, as she dissapeared in a flash of light.
Link walked around the arena for a bit, but nothing happened.
"that's odd..." Link said, as he turned around to walk in the other direction.
Only to bump into somene. Link looked up at the man's face, and was terrified.

"What? I thought you held the triforce of courage, but now, you are shivering like a child! pathetic."
Link tried to run away, only to bump into a large entity.
Link back flipped, and drew the Master sword, holding it with two hands.
"b..but Zelda and I sealed you inside the sacred realm!" Link said, now frightened.
"a..and you! I thought I killed you,!"
Link was now about to fight his toughest opponents, Ganondorf, and Majora.

**********************************

"hmmmmm..."
Nightmare thought to himself, "I can feel a strong energy from inside Charon's Pass..."
"That would be our pointed ear friend, fighting for his life!" Isuka said, still trapped inside Soul edge.
"Get strong boy!" Nightmare said, as he shoved Soul Edge into another innocent bystander.

**********************************

As Majora took out it's tentacle-like-whips, and started to lash at him, Link put up his Hylian shield, and blocked the attack. Then, Ganondorf took out his giant cleaver-like sword, and charged at Link.
Link barely dodged. the side of the sword cutting his stomach. As Link started to cough blood,
Majora chanted in an unkown language, and then, giant spinning tops appeared out of nowhere, and Majora fired them at Link.

Link rolled out of the way, then one of the tops exploded. sending Link fling to the side of the arena.
Coughing up some more blood, Link took out his Bow, and strung two arrows. Just then, the arrows, shone brightly with a yellow glow. Ganondorf, and Majora looked at the two arrows, and cursed.

Link shot the arrows of light, hitting both Ganondorf and Majora in the chest. The two tried to stand up, but couldn't because of the arrow's paralyzing magic. Then Link went in for the kill. Link slashed over and over at the two. Screams of pain echoed everywhere.

As the arrow's magic wore off, the gerudo king jumped away from the beserking hero of time, still hacking away at Majora. "blast," ganndorf said to himself, I guess I will have to transform.
The triforce of power started to glow brightly on his right hand. Then Ganondorf emmited into a bright blue light. Link noticed the bright light, and was shocked.

"No, not again!" Link said to himself. "What sorcery is this?" Majora said, as it tried to recover from it's savage beating.
Once the blue light faded away, Ganon fell to the ground, twin golden sai's in hand.
"great!" Link said.

Link strung another light arrow to his bow, and fired it at Ganon's head. It stunned Ganon long enough, for Link to roll under his legs. Link drew the master sword. It was brighter than usual. Then Link shoved the sword through Ganon's tail, and sticking it into the ground. As the giant beast roared in agony, Link took out the Megaton hammer, and ran towards the recovering Majora.

Majora finally got back up, only to be smashed down by the raw power of the Goron's legendary weapon.
Now that Majora was out of comission, Link ran over to Ganon, and used the mageton hammer, to smash the Master sword even deeper in the ground.

Ganon screamed in agony! he had never felt this much pain before. Ganon slit his tail, so he could escape from the sword's magic. Ganon and Majora had enough. So, they started to chant an unknown spell.
And for some reason, they two villains started to be pulled in towards eachother.

"what the?!?" Link said, as the two got closer and closer. Then the two hit eachother with a blinding light. As Link opened his eyes, he was shocked to see that a monstrosity was standing before him.
Ganon and Majora had conducted a forbidden spell, a spell that binded two people into one entity.

"this will be easy!" Link said, as he charged for the monster. Link slashed at the monster. the sword stopped, as it touched the monster. Link could see that the master sword had cracked.
"Link jumped back, and looked at his sword. "if it's that strong, then i'm in trouble." he said, as he jumped at the monster once again.

Link aimed at the monstrosity's head, and slashed. Link hit the ground, and heard a breaking noise.
Link looked down, and saw that half of the Master sword's blade was on the ground.
Link's eye's widened. "how could the Master sword break on me now?!" Link said.

As Link turned around, the giant's sword impaled him in the stomach.
The monster took it's sword out of link, as he hit the ground.
sudden thoughts ran through Link's head.

"I..Ican't... die...here!" Link said, as he coughed up a large amount of blood.
Then, the triforce symbol started to glow emensley on Link's hand.
It shone extremely bright.
and then, every thing went black.

******************************

"wh..where am I?" Link said, as he opened his eyes.
He was still in the arena. He felt his stomach.
there was no impale mark on it.
Then, the three sages appeared before him.
"you have passed all the tests!"
The sage of power said.

"wh. what?!?" Link said. "I was about to die! where is Ganondorf and Majora?" Link asked quickly.
"huh?" the sage of courage said, "didn't you remember? you got back up from that attack, and used the remaining part of the Master sword to destroy it!".
"you have gained access to the legendary sword!" the sage of wisdom said.
then,a sheathed sword appeared in the hands of the sage of power.

"it's a good thing too!" the sage of power said. "you wouldn't have a sword!" she said.
As Link took the sword, grabbed the crystal blue hilt, and pulled it out of it's sheathe.
Emense power ran through his viens. The splitted blade shone brightly, as Link sheathed it, and put it's belt across his chest.

Link took the hilt of the master sword, and put it in his pocket.
"Good luck with the rest of your journey!" the three sages said, as they showed Link the exit.
Once Link exited the temple, he checked his map. He was now entering the country of aldebaran.


******************************

Nightmare could feel an imense power.
"it seems the boy has the legendary blade!" Isuka said.
"don't worry master," Nightmare said.
"He isn't strong enough to kill me." He said as he laughed and dissapeared.

******************************

CHAPTER 19

*******************************

Link checked his map once again. He was already in the country of Adebaran. it seemed like it was always night. There were dead trees everywhere. The moon was shining brightly, as it reflected off the nearby river that flowed through most of the country.

Link had set up camp by the river. He was in the middle of a large open feild space.
With mountain on his right side, and water on his left, Link felt quite uncomftorable.
The wind was quite harsh. Link could tell, because of all the dead tree's branches were beginnig to snap off, and be blown away by the wind.

"I think i'll go to sleep," Link said, as he turned off his lantern, and his head hit the nice soft pillow. As Link dozed off, it started to rain. "Great" Link said sarcastically. As he got out of his tent.
Just then, Link heard rustling from the near by bushes.

Link unsheathed soul calibur, ready for anything that would come out of the bush. Link heard more rustling, and his grip on the blade's hilt got tighter. And then, a squirrel popped out of bush, and scurried away.

"man, i'm getting too paranoid..." Link said, as he sheathed the holy weapon.

That night, Link couldn't get to sleep. It could have been the swishing of water in the river, or it could have been the Owl that lived in a near by tree. And for some reason, Link could hear footsteps getting closer, and closer.

As Link grabbed Soul calibur, he got out of his tent once again. Only to find that a pack of wolves have already surrounded him.

**********************************

As the man just passed the border of Antares, he checked his map. he had just entered the country of Merak. Other wise known as, "The gate of germany". The man kept running. not caring if his legs got tired.
He was going to reach his goal soon enough.

**********************************

As one wolf hit the ground, another one leaped at Link. He jumped out of the way, rolled behind it, and jumped up, making a vertical slash across the wolf's back.

Then, the whole group decided to leap at Link all at once. That was when link took out his bow, strung an arrow, attached a bomb on the arrow head, and pulled back on the string.

Link was trying to aim at the middle of the pack, whilst running backwards. Then Link fired.
Once the arrow met ground, it exploded. The Wolve's lifeless bodies flew everywhere.

Link took a deep breath, as he put away his bow.

"I guess i'd better keep moving." Link said to himself, as he walked back to his tent.

As Link walked through the haunted field, he could hear some more odd noises. Finally, he found a building he could stay in. The thing is, that it was an enormous castle.

Link knocked on the front door of the castle. No one answered.
"I guess it was abandoned," Link thought to himself, as he slowly opened the giant door.

The large creeking noise woke up a few Rats, as Link walked into the foyer.
"hmmmm... if i'm leaving in the morning, i'd better not get lost in this castle," Link thought, as he sat down at a near by wall.

As Link started to doze off again. He could hear the squeking of mice every where.
And Link let out his first snoring noise of the day.

***********************

About an hour into his slepp, Link could hear an odd creaking noise, which woke him up.
As Link opened his eyes, he could see legs of someone standing right infront of him.
as Link's hand quietly touched Soul Calibur, he leaped from his position, and clanged with the other person's weapon.

As the two jumped back. the One started to hiss, and wheeze at Link.
"what are you?" link asked the man.
The man had cloth covering his eyes, and mouth. he was bald, which made the viens on his head visible.

As The man leaped at Link, Link jumped out of the way. As the man's body turned around, he hissecat Link once again. He Then curled up into a ball, and hurled himself at Link. Shocked, Link tried to jump out of the way, but the man's foot came out of nowhere, a kicked Link straight in the face.

As the man lay on the ground. Link walked up to him. Then, the man's body started to glow, and in a bright light, it exploded. The impact of the explosion, sent Link flying into a brick wall.
As Link spat blood out of his mouth, he charged at the man.

By now, the man had already gotten up, and put his weapons up in defence. Link started to thrust at the man, and with incredible speed, Link started to thrust faster and faster. The man's weapons were still blocking each attack. Until Link stopped.

The man put down his weapons, ready to attack again. just then, Link did a strong powerful thrust,
and it impaled the man.

As the splitted blade of Soul calibur came out of the man, he fell to the ground.

Link sheathed his sword. "I should be heading out." he said, as he opened the castle's door.
And walked out. Strangeley, it was already morning.

He could see a city over the horizon. So Link packed his things, and headed out towards the bustling city.

CHAPTER 20

*******************************

Link headed towards the large city. He was hoping they had his favourite type of chicken.

Once he got towards the gate, there was a giant sign that said "Welcome to Nashira!" Link had entered through the city, hoping he could find a resturaunt soon.

"Man, this place is huge!" Link said, as he turned towards another street. Then, he could see a sign saying, "Nashira resturaunt. Best chicken in town!" Link dashed towards the resturaunt with all of his speed.

Link entered the resturaunt, only to see that everyone stopped eating, and was looking at Link's back. Then one child stepped out of his seat, and pointed at Link.

"It's a thief! somebody capture him!" he yelled. Link looked at the people that were starting to get out of thier seats, and they all had frowns on thier faces. Link started to walk backwards.

"I'm not a thief!" Link said innocentley, as he stepped back a few more steps. The men started to surround him. Then Link took out a deku nut. "You have nowhere to go kid!" one man said, as he started to close in on the hero. Then, Link threw the deku nut at the ground. In a colourful explosion, It blinded all the people who stared at it once it touched the ground, Which gave Link enough time to escape.

As Link ran out of the resturaunt, he could see that the deku nut had wore off. because the people were right behind him. Link started to run. Link held up a pretty good chase, until he met a dead end.

The people once again surrounded him. Link could see a wooden pole to the side of the wall he had his back against. Link quietly took out his Hookshot, and was ready to fire it.

"Your mine kid!" said one of men. With hylian speed, Link took out the Hookshot, and aimed it at the top of the pole, and fired. Link flew towards the top of the pole. The people were amazed by this. But now, Link was pretty much caught. "Your going to have to come down sometime!" The man said.

"Wait!" Link said, "I have proof that I am not a thief!" Link then pulled Soul Calibur out of it's sheathe, and showed it to the towns folk. The pearlescent glow of the blade shone brightly.

The towns people were awed. "You must be... The one who will stop Nightmare!" The one man said. "There is a prophecy. A prophecy that said a man, with a glowing splitted blade, would destroy the man of evil." Another man said.

"We will not hurt you." The one man said, "We need your help!" Link snorted, "why should I help you?" The man replied, "We will give you anything you desire!" The man said.

This piked Link's intrest, "Can I have all the chicken that I could eat?" he asked. "Yes, and its all free." the man said. Link climbed down the pole. "What do you need me to do?" Link asked.

************************************

Nightmare had killed a whole group of people. As the blue souls were sucked up by the demonic blade, Isuka appeared before him again. "Should we go test our friends strength?" He asked him. "Maybe..." Nightmare said, as he dropped a dead body to the ground.

************************************
" There is a band of thieves terrorizing our village." The one man told Link, "when we saw your weapons, we thought you were one of Yoshimtsu's thieves." "Who is this Yoshimitsu person?" Link asked, "Yoshimitsu is the leader of the thieves. He thinks that he can kill Nightmare and be crowned king of everything." He said. "We tried to stop him before," the man said. "but, he is too strong."

"So, you want me to defeat this guy, and then I get all the chicken I can muster?" Link recapped. "Yes. Here is a map of where he lives" The man said, "Good luck."

Link had followed the directions the man gave him. And soon enough, he had reached his destination. Link barged the door open, and then saw a man in wearing a *Kabuto* standing a few feet away from him.

"Welcome." The man said "...TO YOUR DEATH!" The man said, as he snapped his fingers, and 5 thieves ran out to protect thier master. They drew thier blades, ready to attack.

"So thats how we are going to go?" Link said, as he drew soul Calibur. Waiting for someone to make the first move.

TO BE CONTINUED.....

*******************************************************


CHAPTER 20 PART 2

*******************************

there were now about twenty thieves that stood before him, Link took out the Red crystal.
He then put it to his side, and then slammed his hand to the ground. "Din's Fire!" Link yelled, as a giant field of fire emitted from the hero.

Most of the thieves were caught off guard by this magical attack. As about thirteen singed thieves hit the ground, Link leaped at the other seven thieves, with Soul calibur drawn.
The glowing blade came down on a bandit, and slashing across his chest.

The thieve fell to the cold ground, a ouddle of blood emitting from his stomach.
The other thieves looked at thier fallen comrade, and then looked at a not-so-happy looking Link.

"Sorry boss," said one of the thieves, "but you don't pay us enough for this." And with that, they ran past Link as fast as they could.

"Cowards..." The man said, as he got out of his leather seat. "I guess i'll have to kill you myself."
The man drew his katana. "Remember my name in fear... Yoshimitsu".

********************************

"It's only a matter of time now," The man said, as he ran through yet another country side.

********************************

As the man leaped towards Link, he dodged, and crashed his hilt on Yoshimitsu's back.
The man hit the ground. He then got back up. "Not bad..." he said, as he sat down on the ground.

"What's he doing?" Link wondered. Then in a flash of light, the man dissapeared. Link looked up, and could see the man, high in the air, with his sword coming down. Link bareley dodged the attack. There was now a giant gash on his right arm.

As Link could feel the pain, he didn't pay it no mind, since the man was ready to attack again.
The man's Katana swiped down at Link's body once again. This time, he dodged it completely, making the man lose his footing when he touched the ground. If there were a time to attack, it would be now.

Link then leaped at Yoshimitsu's recovering body, and then slashed at his left arm. The arm came off quit nicely, but for some reason, no blood was emitting from it.

"Nice try!" Yoshimitsu said, as he elbowed Link in the face, sending him to the ground.
"Thats the second that arm came off." He said, as he took the sleeve off the arm.
Link saw that the arm was made of wood.

"Curses" Link said under his breath. The man's hilt came crashing down on Link's back. Link ylled in agony, as the man hit him again.

Then Link, with his otherwordly speed and agility, got out of the man's hold, and took out Soul Calibur,
and then sliced at his head.

The head came clear off. And Yoshimitsu's lifeless body hit the ground for the last time.
Link journeyed back to the city, where all the towns people were waiting for him.

Link came up to the man, and showed him Yoshimitsu's Kabuto. " Where's the resturaunt?" Link asked.

After hours and hours of eating chicken, Link finally got full. "I guess i'll be heading out now," he said.

The man came up to him, "we won't see him again, right?" the man said to Link. "The only way you'll see him again, is if he turns into a ReDead!" Link said. The man was confused, "whats a ReDead?" the man asked. "Never mind..." Link said embarrased.

As Link exited the city, he checked his trusty map. it said he was headed towards Fort Signeous.
Link had never been to a fort before, and he was quite excited about it.

He was still a long ways from his goal.

******************************************************


CHAPTER 21

***********************************

Link took out his map once more. He was almost at the fort.

"I'll probably get there before dusk." Link said to himself, as he put away his map.
after 2 hours of travelling, Link had finally made it to the temple.

"It's huge..." Link said, as he looked up at the gate.
"Even the gate is huge!" Just then, the giant gate opened, and a man stepped out to greet Link.

"Welcome to fort Signeous!" The man said cheerfully. Link let go of Soul Calibur's hilt, and walked towards the man. "If you are a tourist, please come this way!" The man said, as he pointed to the corridor on the left.

"I guess I have time..." Link thought to himself. " i'm a tourist," Link said.
"Okay then! Follow me." The man said, as he walked towards the corridor.
Link saw many exhibits, weapons on display, and such. He was quite intrigued by the facinating things that were located here.

"This place is amazing!" Link said, astonished. The man was quite pleased to hear that. "Over here we ha-"
The man was cut off, when another man came rushing towards him.

"Sir!" the man yelled. "What is it Alfred?" the man replied. "The fort... It's under attack!"
The man was quite shocked to hear this. "W..what are they after?" the man said, as he was shaking a bit.
"They are probablly after the weapons." The other man said.

The man cursed under his breath. "Do any employees know how to fight?" The man asked.
"Some do, but most of them have already fled!" The man said, as he shivered.

"What am I going to do/" The man thought. Then he looked at Link. He saw Soul Calibur, and the hylian Shield on his back. This sparked the man's hope.

"Excuse me sir," The man said to Link. "Do you know how to fight?" he asked. "sure! I don't know how many Lizardfos I have defeated, but trust me, its alot!" The looked blindly at Link. "Whats a Lizardfos?... never mind, follow me!" The man said, as Link trailed close behind him.

Once the man stopped, they were outside. Along with them, were 16 other people. all carrying weapons.
Link could see that they were carrying Lances, Axes, and Javelins. He was the only sword wielder.

In the distance, Link could see a miniature army marching towards the fort.
"Get ready everybody!" The man said, as he drew his weapon.

The army was in Javelin reach. So any javelin wielders could make the first move.
Then, the leader of the army, stepped out. His booming voice was quite loud, "hand over your weapons, and we will let you live!" The man said.

The leader wore Thick black armour, and wielded a giant Axe. Link thought he would need the assistance of his bombs, if he were to break that armour.

"We will never hand our possesions over to the likes of you!" The man said. Just then, a javelin came out of nowhere, and impaled the man in the chest. The other employees screamed in horror, as they saw thier boss on the ground, with a javelin sticking out of him.

Link drew Soul Calibur. It's other worldly glow lightened up the ground.
"That looks like an expensive sword you got there kid!" Thr man said.
"Too bad I need to take it from you!"

As The men readied thier weapons, it started to rain. The man in armour hid behind his loyal army.
"ATTACK!" The man yelled, as the army lunged at the employees.

***************************************

most of the army was on the gronud now, due to Link's super Kai-ten giri.
"Fools," The man in armour said.
most of the employees were on the ground also.
"get to safety!" Link called out to the surviving employees.

As Thier men retreated. Link took his fighting stance.
As he was about to face the man in armour.

The man's Axe came down with mighty force. Link dodged it easily. As the man was getting his ax out of the ground, Link went in for the kill. Soul Calibur clanged against the man's armour numerous times, but to no avail.

Link back flipped away from the man, and took out his Megaton Hammer. Link leaped at the man again, and pounded the Hammer on the man's chest plate. It cracked, then bursted into pieces.
Link then took out soul Calibur, and rushed at the man with all of his speed.

Link had impaled the man in the stomach.
As the man yelled his last yells, he then hit the ground with a large thump.
Link sheathed his sword, and walked back to the surviving men.

"You should go home. Your families are probably worried sick." Link said.
The men got up and walked towards the exit. "Thank you for your help." The man said.

"I'd better stay here until the rain stops." Link said to himself, as he walked inside the fort.
Link then fell asleep. not knowing he would be risking his life tomorrow.

CHAPTER 22

*******************************

Link yawned, as he awoke from his sleep. He was still in Fort Signeous.

"I guess I should head out..." Link said, as he stretched his arms.
Then he looked at the lifeless bodies scattered on the floor.

"May you rest in peace..." Link said, as he walked out of the fort.

Link checked his map. He was almost out of Aldebaran. The map said that there were ruins at the end of the country. Behind it was a bridge. Under the bridge, flowed the thuban river. On the other side of the bridge, was the country of Altair, Link's next destination.

Link put away his map, as he walked through the grassy fields of Aldebaran.

It was about an hour, until Link could see the ruins on the horizon.
"That was quicker than I thought," Link said to himself, as he headed towards the structure.

Once Link got to the entrance, he remembered his encounter with that woman in the maze-like temple.
Link unsheathed Soul Calibur, and headed in.

Once Link entered the room, a man was waiting for him.

"I knew someone was going to tresspass today..." The man said, as he stood before the hero.

"I am Oscar, I protect these ruins." The man said.

"I am Link, I am here to destroy Soul Edge." Link said to Oscar.
The man started to chuckle a bit.

"You? defeat Soul edge?... surely you jest!" Oscar said to him.
That's when Link showed Oscar Soul calibur.

"Wh..what?" Oscar said, starting to tremble, "Where did you find that?!?"
"I was worthy enough to claim it." link said, as he started to walk towards Oscar.

"Fine then," he said. "If you want to pass, then you have to defeat me!"
Link looked at Oscar confusingly.

"But you don't carry any weapon," Link told him, "how can you fight without a weapon?"
The man laughed at Link.

"fool! I am a mage!" Oscar told him, "I don't need a weapon!" he then, raised his arm in the air, he started to chant in an unkown language, and then lowered his arm quickly.

Nothing happened. Link was even more confused. Just then, Link could feel a burning sensation in his feet.
Link looked down, and saw that the ground he was standing on, has turned a bright red.

Link then back flipped out of the way. the floor he was once standing on, errupted into flames.
Link looked at the mage quite worringly. "How am I going to defeat this guy?" he thought, as Oscar raised his hand once again.

This time, a giant green light appeared over his hand. Then, out of nowhere, giant green crescents appeared, and flew towards Link. And a giant amount of dust emmited from where Link stood.

As the dust cleared, the mage saw that Link had a few magic tricks of his own. There was a blue crystal that incased Link during the attack.

"Impressive..." Oscar said. Link took out his bow, and strung an arrow. The arrow head turned a bright red, as it was engulfed in flames.

"I hope this works..." Link said, as he fired the flaming arrow at Oscar.
Oscar smirked, as he put out his hand. The flaming arrow touched his palm, and in a bright light, the arrow distintergrated into nothing.

"What?!" Link said, astonished, as Oscar readied another attack.

Link saw two flashes of light on each side of him. then he saw another light that was above him.
"oh Din.." Link muttered, as he jumped away from the attack. The attack still hit Link, as he was electrocuted. As Link writhed in agony, Oscar was laughing at Link's patheticness.

Once Link got back up, Oscar then chanted another spell. "What is he up to this time?" Link wondered.
The man then split into three lifeless forms, and then reappeared, As three identical Oscars.

Link cursed under his breath. The three Oscars started to chuckle at the battered hero.
"Which one is the real me?" one of them said to Link.

They all raised thier hands. And a clear light appeared above them.
Then, they lowered thier arms.

Link saw that bright lights were all around him, and then a pointed spear made of light, jetted towards him. Link saw it, and tried to dodge, the spear skimmed his stomach, making a large wound across it.
Link yelled in pain, as another spear headed towards him.

Link fully dodged this one, but because of the fast movement, a large amount of blood spilled out of the gash. Link cleched his teeth in pain. "How am I going to beat this guy?" Link thought, as he tried to stop the bleeding.

"wait, I have an Idea!" Link's bloodied gauntlet, scurmaged through his pockets, until he took out a funny looking magnifying glass. Link then put it towards his eye, and looked at the three mages with it.
Strangeley enough, only one appeared when Link looked through the lens.

"That's the one!" he said. After largeley exhaling, Link jumped at the mage. Link drew Soul Calibur, and with it cut through the mage's left shoulder. As Oscar hit the ground, blood started to spit out of Link's stomach.

Oscar then handed Link some mushrooms, "here...., eat these, and you will be fine." The man said, as he coughed up some blood before he ate some himself.

Link gobbled the mushrooms up in one gulp, and suddenley, the pain in his stomach, was gone.
Link felt like he was at 100% strength again. Oscar then stood up. "It's an elixer I made," Oscar told Link, "It heals any wounds, and recovers any fatigue."
The hero was confused once more,
"Why did you help me?" Link said.

"Because, you didn't kill me when you had the chance." The mage said, as he handed Link a little bag.
"These are sonme more mushrooms," Oscar said, "I hope they help you on your quest."

"Th..thank you..." Link said, as he put the bag in his pocket.
"You have proven yourself, that you will indeed be strong enough to face Soul Edge someday."
Oscar told him.

"Now, you can pass through the ruins unharmed." Oscar said.
"good luck."

*****************************************

As Link exited the ruins, he could see the bridge in front of him.
Once he crossed this bridge, he would be in the land of Altair.
And be one step closer, in his quest to defeat Soul Edge.

CHAPTER 23

*************************************

Link took out his map, as he crossed the bridge. He was headed towards the gorge of Altair.
Altair was merely a giant desert. All Link could see was sand. The intense heat was starting to get to Link. Link wiped sweat from his forehead, as he checked his map again.

It said there was a fort a few miles away from where Link stood. Link drank the last bit of water in his canister. He was all out.

"Great," Link said sarcastically, as he started his long walk again. Link could see buzzards hovering above him. They thought Link was going to die soon, they kept following him, so that they could get the first bite of him.

Link had finally entered Nereid's gorge. A large gap in the desert that seperated it. There was a Large stone bridge situated in front of him. It reminded Link of Gerudo's Valley. Link started to walk cautiosly onto the old Bridge.

Link could feel his cautiousness starting to fade, as his pace was getting slower and slower.

Link could see two men on the other side of the bridge walking towards him. One started to yell at the exhausted hero.

"Halt! Do not take another step if you want to live!" Said one of the men. Link heard about half of what the man said, because Link had collapsed on the bridge, he was unconcious.

***********************************************************

Nightmare was starting to get impatient.
"Where is he?" Nightmare asked, as he shoved Soul Edge into a man that had challenged him.
"Patience," Isuka told him.
"He will return to us, afterall, he does have a fragement of Soul Edge. He can track us anywhere in the world!" Isuka said.
"Alright, I'll try..." Nightmare said, as he cut down another villager.

************************************************************

Link opened his eyes. His blue irises looked around for a moment. "Wh..where am I?" Link asked himself, as he got out of the bed he was in. He walked towards the door, but it was locked.

Link looked around for Soul Calibur, but it was nowhere in sight.
Link cursed, as he banged on the door viciously. But to no avail.

Link walked back to the bed, and waited.

After about two hours of doing nothing, the door slowly creeked opened. A giant man walked into the room.
Link got off the bed and walked over to him.

"Who are you?" Link asked.
The man replied with a booming voice.

"I am General Stefan." The man said.

"Where am I?" Link asked him.
The man replied. "You are at Fort Nereid." The large man told him.

Just then, memories of Fort Signeous rushed through Link's head.
"Why did you save me?" Link asked.
"My friend Oscar, informed me that a man clothed in green would be aproaching the fort soon."
Stefan said.

"And it looks like he didn't lie this time!" He said, while chuckling a tad bit.
"Thank you for saving me," Link said graciously.

"If my men hadn't had found you, you would have been a Buzzard's meal" Stefan said.

"I'll just pick up my weapons, and be off." Link said to the general.

"Oh yes, your weapons." Stefan said. "Oscar also informed me that you claim Soul Calibur."
He continued, "it has a magnificent glow to it. I hope you take care of it." He said.
"It's in the infirmary, my men will escort you there." Stefan said.

"You have been very generous General Stefan." Link said. "Don't mention it." Stefan said cheerfully.
Just then, two guards walked into the room. "Go escort our friend to the infirmary." Stefan ordered.

"Yes Sir!" The two guards said simultaneously. "Follow us." The guards said to Link.

Once they got to the infirmary, Link could See Soul Calibur and the Hylian Shield located in the corner of the room.

Once Link picked up the sword of heroes, A large explosion errupted through the entire fort.

The guard looked out the tiny hole in the room, and saw that a small army was marching towards the fort.
He could also see the catapult located behind them. It fired off another Trebuchet, and blew a hole in the western wall of the fort.

Then the guard spotted thier leader.
"Raphael..." The man uttered under his breath.

The guard turned back to Link.
"If you escape now, you won't be detected!" The guard said to him.

Link looked at the glowing blade of Soul Calibur, then looked back at the guard.

"I have no intention of escaping." Link said, as he strapped Soul Calibur to his back.
"He helped me, and now I will help him!"

Link then ran out of the infirmary, searching frantically for Stefan.

TO BE CONTINUED.......

CHAPTER 23 PART 2

********************************************

Link could hear the crumbling rock, as another explosion went off.

"Where is he?" Link wondered, as he turned around a corner.
There was a man in a red vest waiting for him.

"I guess some men have already gotten into the fort." Link thought, as he cut down the man that was in his way.

Link then saw about five guards rushing towards him.
Link stepped out of the way, as the group rushed by. Then, another explosion went off and destroyed the wall where the guards were near.

The guards screamed in fear, as the falling stone crushed them.
Link looked back in disgust.
"I got to keep moving!" Link thought to himself, as he hacked down another one of the desert bandits.

Once Link turned around another corner, he saw Stefan.
Another explosion went off, as the ground started to shake violently.
Just then, Link saw that Stefan was fighting another man.

This man looked diffrent than the other thieves Link encountered.
He was more well dressed, and by the looks of it, he could hod his own, even when he was fighting a man twice his size.

"My men will take what is rightfully ours," The man said, clashing swords with stefan, "Even if it means destroying your little fort, until it is reduced to rubble!"

The two continued to clash swords with every move. It seemed like they were evenally matched.
That was when Link decided to intervene in the fray. That is until two thieves spotted him, and unsheathed thier machetes.

Link decided to take the thieves head on. Link jumped, and swung Soul calibur at the one thief.
The sword made a large gash across the man's chest. As the man hit the ground, screaming in agony, Link then jumped at the other man.

The man had a terrified look in his eye, as he tried to block the attack with his weapon. But Soul Calibur was too strong. The Holy blade cut right through the machete, and also made a large vertical slash across the man's right arm.

"Now that those two are out of comision.." Link said to himself, as he ran back to the battle.
Link got there in time, only to see that the man's rapier had impaled Stefan in the left side of his chest.

As he could feel his life fading, Stefan looked at Link.
In a wheezing voice, Stefan said these words to Link, "It's your job now..."

Stefan then hit the ground, and with his last breath, he coughed up a large amount of blood.
"What a shame.." The man said.
"Now you have ruined that beutiful carpet with your blood..."

Link was now enraged. The Triforce symbol started to glow on the back of his left hand.
"You! prepare to die!" Link yelled in blind anger.

The man looked at Link with a blind stare. And then started to chuckle.
"Do you really think you can beat me when your leader couldn't?" The man scoffed at Link.
"I'll kill you,no matter what!" Link said angrily at the man.

"Do you really think your right? how pathetic..." The man said to Link, as he raised the bloddied tip of his blade at him.

"Why did you come here?" Link asked, as he started to calm down a bit.
The man looked at Link, dumbfounded.
"I thought you were a part of this pathetic army..." The man finally said to Link.

The man closed his eyes, and uttered out two words. "Lehran's Medallion..."
Link was confused. "Whats a Lehran's Medallion?"
The man stared at Link. "Thats all you need to know!" The man said.

"Before we start, you should know the name of the man that killed you." he said.
"Tell them that man was Raphael Sorel!" The man said, confidentley.

"by the way.. the name is Link." Link responded, as he grabbed the Hylian shield, and took it off his back.

************************************

"I wonder what is taking Link so long..." Zelda said to herself, "It has been four months since I last saw that gleaming face of his... I hope he is all right.." Zelda's train of thought was interrupted, when a nearby guard came rushing into the room.

"ma'am!" The guard said, as he saluted. "What is it?" Zelda responded quite annoyingly, "can't you see that I am very busy?" The man lowered his arm. "I am sorry ma'am, but we have recieved numerous reports that the weather has been getting worse."

Zelda looked out a nearby window, and saw that the clouds were getting darker and darker.
"Hurry Link," Zelda said, "We havn't got much time left."

************************************

"Your too slow!" Raphael said mockingly, as he dodged another one of Link's sword swipes.

"man, he's fast!" ink thought to himself, as he backflipped away from Raphael's rapier.
"I need to catch him off guard, if I want to defeat him."
Raphael's rapier came as fast as flooding water, as his swipes were getting faster, and more fierce by the second.

When one swipe got too close. The rapier Cut Link's leg. As the pain was flowing through Link's body, Raphael went in for another attack. Link barely dodged the attack.

Just then, a flying trebuchet blew a hole through a neatby wall. Barely missing the two fighters.
"This place is getting too dangerous..." Link thought, as he put up his shield, to block an incoming sword slash.

Raphael swped at Link's feet. Link back flipped out of the way. Then he rolled towards him, and then in a flash, Link jumped up. And propeller kicked Raphael in the head.
As Raphael skidded across the floor Link walked up to him, with his hookshot out.

"What are you going to do with that?" Raphael asked.
"It's a hook shoot. Link said, aiming it at Raphael's chest.
"If I press this button, this hook will shoot, and impale you in the heart."
Link said, starting to get cross again.

"Do you want that?" Link asked Raphael.
Raphael looked at the ground beside him, with a stern look in his face.
"I didn't think so.." Link put away his hookshot, and Grabbed Raphael by the collar of his purple jacket.

"Now call your men off." Link said.
"...fine..." Raphael said, angrily.

As Link walked Raphael towards his army, some of the catapult opperators started to get angry.
"Thats it?" said one of the workers.

"Yes it is." Link said, as he reached for a blue object in his pocket.
"And if that doesn't work out..." Link said, as he held up the bomb so everybody could see it's blue glow.

"I will throw my bomb in the middle of your little army." Link said, as he grip tightened on Raphael's collar. "Now, cease and desist, now!" Link said.

The army threw thier swords, and axes down, as they layed down on the hot sand.
"I hope that burns," Link said, as he thew Raphael to the ground.

"Now, go back to your homes, and never return." Link said to the men.

As they were walking back, one man said to the other. "That guy needs to calm down!" the other man replied, "I know!" Just then, an arrow impaled the man in the back. As his lifless body hit the ground, the other man looked behind him.

He saw Link lowering his bow. He saw a terrifying evil look in Link's face.
The man then ran ahead in fear.

The mark on Link's hand stopped glowing. Link then felt a sudden calm over him, as he walked back to the fort.

The fight was over.

CHAPTER 24

*************************************

All of the surviving warriors from the battle, met in the room where Raphael and Link dueled.
They were surrounding thier fallen general.

Just then, Link entered the room. As the guards turned around to see who was there, Link could see the large red puddle emmitingfrom Stefan.

"You!" The guard yelled, as he pointed at Link.
"where were you this whole time?"

Link looked at the ground, then quickly looked back up at the guard.
"I witnessed Stefan's death..." Link said quietly.

"What?!? Why didn't you help him?" The guard yelled out angrily.
Link bit his lip for a second, then replied.

"I was caught up in my own fight at the time, but when I was finished, I was too late..."
The guard felt embarrased, because he had shouted at Link for no apparent reason.

"Oh," he finally replied, "I didn't know, I am terribly sor-" Link cut him off, "forget about it."

"Once Stefan died, I defeated thier leader, but before we fought, he said something about a medallion, and that it was rightfully thiers." Link told them.

"He must have meant Lehran's Medallion." The guard said.
"We found it a long time ago in the desert. Legends have said that thje medallion has been blessed by the godesses themselves!" Link was intrigued by this comment. "How is it blessed?" he asked,.

"It has been said, that whoever can use it's magic, thier power will increase greatly." The guard told him.
"But that power comes at a terrible price," The man continued, "for if you do not have a pure enough heart and touch it, it will corrupt your mind, and be turned into a killing machine." The guard said.

"Thats why we needed to keep it away from Raphael, and his companions. For we know they don't have a pure enough heart, and that we would be in great danger." The guard said.

"May I try to carry it?" Link asked.
The guard stepped back a few steps and stared at Link.

"You think you have a pure enough heart?...YOU?!" The guard yelled at Link.
Thats when Link unsheathed Soul Calibur, and showed it to the guards.

"Th..thats Soul Calibur!" The guard said, quite scared.
"If you are pure enough to touch the holy weapon, surley you are pure enough to hold Lehran's Medallion!"
The guard said.
"Follow me!"

Link followed the guard to the underground part of the fort. Link lit the candle in his lantern, for it was extremely dark inside.

After a few minutes of walking, the guard stopped.
"Here it is." The guard said. Link put his lantern infront of him. He could see a small pedestal, with a round object inserted in it.

"Go ahead, touch it." The guard said, as Link started to walk up to the small pedestal.
Link was a little hesitant at first. Then he put his left hand on it.
The triforce mark shone brightly on Link's hand. The guard was suprised to see that.

"How did you do that?" asked the fascinated guard.
Link turned back at the guard. "It normally happens." He said, as he took the medallion out of the pedestal.

"I don't feel any diffrent..." Link said, as he looked at the markings on the medallion.
"That's good." The guared said, as he sighed in relief.

"Go ahead, and take it with you." The guard said generously.
"Thanks." Link said. "I'll head out tomorrow then."

*later that night*

Every guard was lined up. With flowers in hand. Once they got to the front, they layed down the flowers before Stefan's tombstone.

The tombstone said on it ,"Here lies Stefan. He fell in battle, to protect the one's he loved."

Link was last in line. "You saved my life, and then I watched your's end. I am sorry." Link thought to himself, as a tear stremed down his cheek.

*next morning*

Link had already left the fort, and headed west.
He checked his map, he was headed towards Altair's border.
There was a sanctuary connecting Altair, and Schedar together.

Schedar was known as the smallest country in Asia. And it was Link's next destination.

Once Link crossed the desert and entered the sanctuary, He saw nothing inside.
He actually thought he wouldn't have to spill blood today.

Once Link walked towards the exit, an arrow skimmed Link's hair, and stuck into the wall beside him.
Link was suprised. He turned around, and was even more suprised.

"wh...what the?!?" Link said, in shock.

"What?" The man said, lowering his bow. "We have a little score to settle.. Ready your weapon boy!"
As Link drew Soul Calibur, the battle had begun.

TO BE CONTINUED......

*********************************************************

CHAPTER 24: PART 2

********************************************

"You will pay for what the king of evil did to me after our battle." The man said, as he unsheathed his black sword. "I'll never forget that day..."

********************************************

"AAAAUGH!" Dark Link screamed. He could feel his body starting to burn from the ambers of Din's fire. He then, turned into an onox blob.
There were numerous blood stains on Link's blue Zora tunic.

"That was close," Link sighed, as the room transformed back to normal. The blob watched, as Link obtained the longshot. The weapon he was guarding. And In a flash of bright light, the blob was gone.

Dark then reappeared inside Ganondorf's throne room. He had already transformed back into Link's form.
The Gerudo king stared at him with his bloodshot red eyes.

"You have failed me." The king of evil said in a dark tone. "I thought you were my greatest creation!" Ganondorf said, as he raised his hand.
A colourful beam of light started to emmit from his palm.

"Now, BEGONE!" Ganondorf yelled, as he shot the beam of light at Dark. He screamed in agony, as the beam started to electrocute him.
And then, he dissapeared.

**************************************************

"Do you know how much torture I went through because of that failure?!" Dark asked angrily.
"I will kill you!" Dark then unsheathed his black master sword, and jumped in the air towards Link.

The gleaming blade came down. Link easily dodged the attack.
"I killed your master!" Link yelled, "how can you possibly beat me?"

Dark yelled angrily, as he slashed numerous times at Link.
Only for them to be blocked by the hylian shield.

Dark jumped back from his attacks. In blinding rage, Dark then rushed towards Link, and started to swipe his sword wildly at him.
Link started to run backwards.

"If I can do it fast enough," Link thought to himself, "Then I will beat him like I did last time."
Link put his hand in his pocket, and took out a red crystal. He then slammed it on the ground.

"Din's Fire!" he yelled, as a field of flame emmitted from him.
"your going to try that trick on me again?" Dark laughed.

As The flame got close to him, Dark jumped as high as he could, and was higher then the fire's range.
Link didn't have time to shield. Dark slashed Link's right arm. Making it useless.

"Without an arm, you can't shield, Dark said, with a large grin on his face.
Link slipped the hylian shield off his right arm, and then put it on his left arm.

"I'm not out yet," Link said, as he took his fighting stance.
The battle continued

*****************************************************

The Dark Knight stopped dead in his tracks.
"Whats the matter nightmare?" Isuka asked him.
Nightmare put his hand on his head in agony, as he was remembering who he used to be.
"Siegfried Schtauffen is gone now." Isuka said.
"Your right," Nightmare replied to his master, as they set off again.

*****************************************************

Link was trying to catch his breath. There were numerous slash marks on his body.
Since his right arm was numb, it left his right side of his body defenceless.
Which was where Dark was aiming all of his attacks.

"Whats the matter?" Dark asked, " You aren't that challenging anymore!"
blood was starting to leak out of Link's wounds.

"I should have kept training after I saved Termina!" Link thought to himself.
Link then took out the Megaton Hammer. It was quite heavy,since Link was holding it with one arm.

Link swiped it at Dark, but he dodged the slow attack. Link jumped away from Dark.
He surmaged through his pockets, until he took out the blue sack that Oscar gave him.

He took out the green coloured mushroom, and threw it into his mouth. He swallowed it without chewing.
Once he was done chocking, Link could see his wounds starting to heal.

"What are you doing?!" Dark asked angrily.
"Now, we can fight!" Link said, as he started to move around his right arm, just to make Dark angrier.

"AAARGH!" Dark yelled, as he charged up his sword for a Super Ki-Ten-Giri attack.
Link also started to charge up. They were waiting for the first one to strike.

In a flash, they both unleashed thier attack at the same time.
The Sanctuary crumbled under the weight of thier attack.
And both were burried in the rubble.

*******************************************
Once the dust settled, Link popped out of the mess.
"phew, if I hadn't have casted Nayru's love at the last second, I would have died for sure!" Link said, as he looked around for Dark.

He saw Dark's arm sticking out of the rubble.
"It looks like I won again," Link said, as he checked his map.

He was about to cross over Schedar's border.
"It looks like i'll be heading out again." Link said, as he left Dark in the rock.

Just then, his arm twitched, and then his hand made a fist.
"I'm not done yet..."

CHAPTER 25

******************************************

Once Link had entered into Schedar's teritory, he checked his map.
It said that Schedar had only one structure in it.
It was called the stone temple.

"hmmmmm..." Link thought, "I wonder who lives in the temple?"
Link put away his map, and walked towards the large structure in the small country.

Once Link got to the entrance, there was a giant boulder, blocking Link from getting in.
Link then slipped on the golden gauntlets. Guantlets that grant the user inhuman strength once worn.
Link grabbed the bottom of the boulder, and lifted it up to about his waist.

Then, Link threw the boulder behind him.
Inside the temple, there was a large group of people sitting before another man that was sitting on a throne. Once they felt the ground shake, due to the boulder. They knew they had an intruder.

"Well, well," The man on the throne said, "looks like we have visitors."

Link entered thhe first room of the temple.
He looked around for a bit, there were Chinese charecters painted on the brown wooden walls of the room.
He looked down at the wooden ground. It was all worn out due to people stepping on it numerous times.

Link looked up, and there was a man in a white gi waiting for him.
"Prepare to meet your doom!" the man said, as he took his fighting stance.

Link sighed, as he drew Soul Calibur.
The man came rushing at him. Link dodged, and then smashed the hilt into the man's back.
Link sheathed Soul calibur and entered the next room. The man was on the ground groaning.

Once Link entere the next room, he looked around. The room looked exactley the same.
He saw a man with a dagger run at him. Link jumped out of the way. before the man could turn around, Link bashed him with his Hylian Shield, and then, smashed the man in the head with the flat side of Soul calibur.

Link sighed,
"This is way too easy," which didn't upset Link in the slightest.

Once Link entered the next room, a man carrying a machete was his next challenger.
"finally" Link thought to himself, "A challenge."

Once Link drew his sword, the man looked at it for three seconds, and then ran out of the room, screaming.
"...never mind.." link said, as he walked towards the next room.

Once Link entered, he saw a man with a sword and a shield.
This man didn't look frightened at all. Link thought he might have a challenge.
Link took his stance, as the other man took his.

The man jumped at Link. He slashed downwards. Link dodged easily. The man recovered quickly.
But not quick enough. link came around, and slashed the man's chest.

He fell to the ground. Link got up, and walked towards the next room.
When he got there, he saw a man in a long Red jacket. He wore a crystal as a necklace.
And he held a five foot staff.

"I'm sorry," the man said to Link, "But this is where you stop." Link, with soul calibur already drawn, took his stance, and jumped towards the man.

The warrior dodged and jumped back. Link took out his hookshot, and fired it. the point latched around the staff, and Link hit the return button. Link shot towards the man. Once he got close enough, he put away the hookshot, and drew Soul calibur.

Link performed his famous jump attack. But the man blocked it with the metal part of his staff.

Link jumped back, and took out his boomerang. He threw it at him. But the man blocked. once he lowered his staff, he saw Link with an arrow strung to his bow. It was a diversion.

Link shot the arrow with blinding speed. The man blocked. The arrow was fast enough, that it caught him off balance.

"now's my chance!" Link thought, as he drew his blade and dashed towards the warrior.
Link slashed, and the man flew to the ground. With a large cut wound across his stomach.
As he lay in agony, Link walked up to him, and gave him a mushroom.

"Here, it will heal your wound." Link said.
"NO!" the man yelled as he batted Link's hand away. "I failed, let me die in peace."
"I won't let you!" Link yelled.

"I let all your friends live, I won't see you die!" Link yelled.
"why would you show mercy to your enemies?" the man asked.
"because, you are not my enemy!" Link told him.
"i'm just a traveller on my way to Germany!"

the man sighed.
"Give me that mushroom of yours."
Link threw him the green coloured mushroom.

The man grabbed it, and then threw it in his mouth.
He could geel the wound on his stomach dissapear.

"Thank you friend." The warrior said, as he stood up.
"Now, I need to go." Link told him.

"If you are to pass," the man said,
"you will need to defeat our master."

"okay then." Link said, as he started to walk towards the room where thier master was.
"Good luck," said the man.

******************************************************

CHAPTER 25 PART 2

********************************************

Link entered the final room of the temple.
There were Murals engraved on the walls. Torches were lit up everywhere.

Link saw at the back of the room, a man wearing a black vest over a white sleevless shirt was sitting upon the throne.

The man saw the intruder, and stood up. His long red cape dragged on the ground.
"You are a skilled warrior, if you defeated Kilik," said the young man.

"Let me pass." Link told him, "Or else."
The man chuckled under his breath.
"you cannot defeat me!" he said.

"don't get too cocky," Link said, as he drew Soul Calibur.
The man's fire red eyes widened, when he saw the other worldly glow of the holy weapon.
"h..how did you?!" The said, startled.

"lets begin!" Link yelled, as he slipped his shield onto his right arm.
"Allow me to introduce myself," the man said,
"My name is Shadow, and this blade will be your demise!"

Shadow then drew a giant broad sword. It was golden in colour.
Then Shadow started to levitate in the air, somewhat resembling Ganondorf, when Link fought him in his tower.

Link took out his fairy's bow, and strung an arrow to it.
But before he could aim, Shadow dashed towards the hylian with incredible speed.
Shadow swiped at Link. He backflipped out of the attack's way.

"he's fast!" Link thought to himself, as drew Soul Calibur again.
Then shadow put his hand out. It started to glow with a yellow coloured aura.
As Link put up his shield, Shadow shot tiny lightning bolts out of his hand.

The bolts hit the hylian shield with great force.
The electricity ran through the shield's metal, and started to crawl up Link's right arm.
Link could fell the burning sensation in his arm, but didn't pay an attention to it.

Then, Shadow snapped his fingers. Nothing happened at first, but in a white flash of light,
everything around Link froze in time.

Link could now see Shadow dashing towards him, with his broad sword ready to strike.
The blade came down on Link, making a large cut across his arm.

Link tried to squint his eyes in pain, but they were still frozen.
Once the time phrase went back to normal, Link backed off.

He was holding his arm in pain, as blood started to squirt out of it.
"Whats wrong?" Shadow said, as he readied his fighting stance,
"I thought you would be more of a challenge."

Link let go of his bloodied arm, and ran towards Shadow.
Link swiped at Shadow's head, only to cut off strands of his black and red hair.
As Shadow jumped back, he looked up, and saw Link running towards him again.

Link swiped for the legs this time.
Shadow dodged. The swipe cut through his black baggy pants.

Shadow flew into the air. He put his hand out towards Link.
His hand started to glow with a blue light.
Then, Shadow fired consequetive beams of energy at Link.

Link rolled out of the beam's range, and took out his hookshot.
Link noticed the hilt of shadow's blade over his right shoulder.
He quickly aimed it, and fired. The chain latched around the hilt of Shadow's sheathed blade.

"What?!" Shadow exclaimed, as Link rocketed off the ground, heading towards him.

Once Link got close enough, he put away the hookshot, and quickly drew Soul calibur.
Link slashed down wards in mid air, and slashed deeply into Shadow's right side of his stomach.

Once the two hit the ground, Shadow writhed in pain, as Link walked up to him.
"I..I can't... die...here.." Shadow wheezed, as he coughed up blood.
"I..need to avenge her.."

***************************************************

*3 years ago*

"Look brother! aren't the flowers so pretty after it rains?"
said an uknown voice.

a young man of 16 walked up towards his little sister.
She had chestnut coloured hair, and wore a yellow skirt.
"yeah, they are." He said, as he patted his hand on the little girl's head.

"Should we head back home?" asked shadow,
"awww! just five more minutes," The girl said, as she picked up a few of the wet flowers.

The boy looked up towards the gathering clouds in the sky.
"Is it going to rain again?" he wondered.

Then, he heard an ear shattering scream.
Once he turned around, he found something he couldn't believe.

His sister was on the ground, with a giant impale mark on her stomach.
He looked up. And saw a giant man in armour, take his giant sword out of his poor defencless sister.

"hmmmm... The man said, in a dark tone of voice,
"It's a weak soul, but it will have to do." Then, a circular blue coloured beam of energy flew out of his sister's body, and was sucked into the man's giant sword.

With tears streaming down his cheeks, the boy rushed at the man.
"So, you appose me?" The knight said.

The boy tried to kick at the man's helmet, but the armoured man was too fast.
He slashed his sword acoss the boy's leg.

As the boy fell to the grassy ground of the field, Nightmare was about to finish him off.
Until he stopped.

"hmmmm... I think you'll suffer more, if I let you live," the man told the crying boy.
"Remember, that Nightmare was the one who ruined your life!" The man said, and in a flash, he was gone.

The crawled over to his sister.
"S..sarah?.. please don't leave me..."
The boy grabbed her sister's lifeless body and held her tightly.

"SARAH!!!!!!!"
The boy continued to cry.

The rain started to come down hard.

****************************************************

*one month later...*

"I'm leaving mother.." the boy said.
"but, where will you go?" asked the older woman.
"Don't worry, i'll find a place to stay."

"Your doing what?!" Kilik yelled at him.
"calm dowm," said the boy,
"I said, i'm leaving the village, getting a whole group of people together, and train together."
the boy said.

"your my best friend," the boy said,
"I thought you would come with me."
Kilik stared at him.

"Of course I will come with you!" Kilik told him.
"But why are you doing this?"

The boy looked at the ground,
"its none of your concern," the boy said.
"Go get the other kids from the village, we have alot of traveling to do."

"Where are we going?" Kilik asked him.
"Were going to Schedar. And for the next five years, we will train there, and become stronger."
"SCHEDAR?!" Kilik yelled, "That's about a three month walk there!"

"we'll be alright," the boy said.
"Just inform the other boys, and we can head out tomorrow."

"Rhys, think about what you are doing!"
Kilik told him, as the boy started to walk off.

"The Rhys you once knew, died,"
The boy said, with tears in his eyes.
"Call me Shadow..."

***************************************************************

Shadow, could feel the rage inside him burst out.
"I WILL AVENGE HER!!!!!!" He yelled, as the eight rings on his hands started to glow emmensly.

Link readied Soul Calibur, incase he tried to pull anything.
Shadow then, screamed in agony, as his teeth started to grow emensley.
His eyes started to glow red, as his white skin, started to turn gold.

Shadow then transformed into a beam of light.
The light blinded Link for a few seconds.

Once he lowered his arms, Link was shocked to see what was infront of him.
Shadow was no longer human....

What was before the hero, was a giant golden dragon...

"W..what?!" Link yelled, as the dragon, readied to attack.

TO BE CONTINUED.....

CHAPTER 25 PART 3

******************************************

*2 years ago,*

"Rhys, what are you doing in there?" Kilik asked, as he opened the door to his room.

Rhys was reading an onyx coloured book with red writing on the cover.
Kilik noticed the familiar book.

"What are you doing with the forbidden book?" Kilik asked.
Rhys spotted his friend, and put the book down.

He got out of his position, and walked up towards Kilik.
"I know it's forbidden, but think of possibilities..." Rhys told him.

"Imagine all the envy the others would have, if I could master these moves inscribed here."
Kilik shrugged away from his friend.

"You aren't thinking of mastering dark arts are you?" Kilik asked sternly,
"You worry too much!" Rhys told him, "and call me Shadow."

"No, I will only call you by your real name!" Kilik yelled.
"whatever." Rhys said, as he walked towards the onyx book.

Kilik grumbled, as he slammed the door shut behind him.

****************************************

*A month later*

As the people in the mess hall were about to dig into thier dinner, Rhys walked into the room.
"Rhys?" asked one of the men,
"We havn't seen you for a week!"

Rhys had a funny looking grin on his face.
He walked towards Kilik, who was about to stuff his face with corn.

"Come with me, I got something to show you," Rhys said, as he grabbed Kilik's jacket, and pulled him out of his chair.

Kilik was still holding onto his half eaten ear of corn, when Rhys dragged him into his room.
"So where have you been?" Kilik asked.

"I have heard legends of the eight gold rings of Schedar. It has been said that whoever can master them, they can harness thier immense power." Rhys said, as he scurmaged through his pockets.

"So what?" Kilik said, "It isn't like you found them."
That was when Rhys showed Kilik the rings.

"H..how did you?!" Kilik said, dumbfounded.
"I found them in a ditch about 3 days ago." Rhys said, as he put them on his fingers.

"they have to be mastered through anger, so don't talk to me for a while." Rhys said, as he shoved Kilik out of his room, and locking the door behind him.

"I wonder why is he so determined to get stronger?" He asked himself, as he walked towards the mess hall.

****************************************************************

Shadow Roared, as he wacked Link with his tail once again.
Link flew into the air, and hit a nearby wall.

Once Link hit the ground, the dragon came in for another attack.
Link pulled out the green crystal, and threw it in the air.
It glowed a familiar green glow, and fell down.

Once it hit Link, he vanished.
The dragon hit the wall with his tail.

Link reappeared behind Shadow.
As he spit out some blood, Link took out the fairy's bow.
Link aimed the strung arrow at the dragon's head.

He fired. The arrow hit it's target dead on.
But the arrow disintergrated once it hit one of shadow's golden scales.

"what?!" Link said, shocked, as shadow's enourmous hand flew at Link.
Link tried to dodge, but the claws slashed across his body.

Link flew to the ground, with three giant gash marks across his stomach.
As Link squinted in pain, shadow breathed in as much as he could, and blew.

Blue fire came racing out of his mouth.
Link quickly took out the red crystal, only this time, he didn't slam it to the ground.
This time, he cupped his hands together, and a beam of orange fire flew out of the red crystal.

The two rays of clashed. They were hitting eachother. Evening out the range of both attacks.
Link could feel his power fading, from the amount of magic power he was using up.

Then, Link held the red crystal in one hand, while he took out the blue crystal.
It was a risky move, since Link couldn't use both magic attacks at the same time.
He would have to put away Din's fire, and quickly cast nayru's love before shadow's fire scoarched him.

Link decided to take the risk, and put away Din's fire.
Shadow's blue ray of fire started to move again, and at a speeding pace, the fire blasted towards Link.
The blue crystal shone brightly, as Link yelled the spell's name.
Then, the fire hit Link with a gruesome force, a bright light shone bright, as it lit up the entire room.

****************************************************

*18 months ago*

"AAAARGH!" Why can't I pull it off!!!"
Rhys yelled in anger, as he slammed his hands on the desk.
The golden ring's glow faded away.

Just then, Kilik swung Rhy's door open.
"What are you yelling about?!"
Kilik said to the fuming Rhys.

"It's nothing," Rhys said, as he calmed down a bit.
"Just leave me alone!"
Kilik frowned, as he closed the door quietley.

"I won't be strong enough to defeat him if I can't master these Ring's power."
Rhys said to himself.
"I will avenge you sister, even if it takes me my whole life!!!"

*************************************************

Once the lighting went back to normal, Shadow's Crimson eyes looked in disbelief, as he saw Link
encased in a blue diamond.

Link thought to himself, "Should I use it on him?" he thought, "no, it's too risky. I will just use Soul charge."

Link walked towards Shadow, he blew fire at the hero once again, only to be deflected by the crystal's magic. Then, Link took out the fragement of Soul edge. He tightened his fist around it, and a blue, green, and yellow glow surged through Link's body.

********************************************

Soul edge's eyes opened, as it started to glow.
Nightmare noticed the viens appearing on his mutated right arm.
"hmmmmmm... So, he's finally using it...." He said to himself.

"The fool.." Isuka said to Nightmare telepatheclly.
"The more times he uses it, more power will flow through my viens."

"yes.." Nightmare said, as he vanished into thin air.
Just then, a girl garbed in green peaked around the house's corner.
She saw Nightmare teleport.

"ooooooo... that's quite fancy nightmare.." She said with a cute voice,
just then, a crow came and landed on her left shoulder.
"I just hope your little lackey of yours does his job..."

****************************************************

Link drew Soul Calibur. It glowed with the colours of soul charge.
Shadow's eyes widened, as Link got closer to him.

Link then slashed at Shadow's Golden stomach.
As Shadow writhed in pain, Link took out the Megaton hammer.
Link slammed the hammer down on Shadow's right foot.

Shadow roared in pain, as he toppled over.
As Shadow hit the ground, Link jumped onto him.
Link swiped on the iron boots so Shadow couldn't get up.

Link took out Soul calibur, and started hacking away at his stomach.
Link yelled, as he slashed again, and again.
Blood was flying onto Link's face, he didn't care as he swiped at the dragon's defenceless body again and again. The Triforce mark glowed on Link's hand.
Shadow screamed. All of a sudden, Memories were flowing through his corrupted mind.

*****************************************************

* 11 months ago *

"Finally, it's finished," Rhys said, as he grabbed the hilt of his new sword.
"I'll call it Mobius, the cutter of wind." He said, as he sheathed the brand new broad sword.

Kilik rushed into his room.
"What is it now Kili-"
Rhys was cut off.
"Rhys, were being attacked!"
Kilik yelled at his friend.

"Attcked?!" Rhys said, with a worried look in his eyes,
"Yes, thieves have been wanting to take this temple for thier own." Kilik yelled.
"5 have already died, we need your help!"

"I have to stain my new blade in blood already?" Rhys asked, as he drew Mobius,
"Oh well, lets go!"

Kilik nodded, as the two ran out of the room, to join in the brawl.

*************************************************

As Link was about to shove Soul calibur into shadow, Kilik ran into the room.
"STOP!" he yelled.

Link looked at Kilik, and then looked at the almost dead Shadow.
The triforce mark faded on Link's hand, as he slided off the dragon's body.

The dragon transformed back to human.
Link looked at unconcious body of his foe.

Then, he sheathed his sword.
Kilik ran towards Shadow.
He opened his mouth, and poured a red liquid into it.

*************************************************

* 11 months ago *

"We Won!" Rhys yelled, as he took his sword out of a lifeless body.
Kilik ran up to him.
"Good job Rhys!" Kilik said, as he patted his friend on the back.

"How many have died?" Rhys asked him.
"About 23," Kilik told him.

"We will hold a ceremony in honour of them." Kilik said, as he walked off to treat to the wounded.

Rhys walked out side, and looked at the horizon.
"did you see that?!" Rhys yelled out,
"I am a force to be reckoned with!"
"Next time we meet, It will be I who is victorious!"
He shouted.

"I will kill you Nightmare, if it is the last thing I do!!!!"

**********************************

TO BE CONTINUED...

************************************************

CHAPTER 26

********************************************

"ugh...where am I?" Shadow asked himself, as he sat upwards.
He opened his eyes. He found himself still in the arena.
With a pool of blood emmiting from him.

"W...what happened?" he asked himself, as he held his head in pain.

Just then, Kilik opened the door, and entered the battle arena.
"Looks like you finally came to..." He said, as he walked over to his friend.

"W..where is he?" Shadow asked him.
Just as he said that, Link strolled into the room.

"YOU!" Shadow yelled, as he looked around frantically for his sword.
"Calm down Rhys," Kilik said, as he put a hand on his shoulder.

"He's not here to kill you. He was just passing by, and we thought he was a thief planning to take over our temple." He said, as he took his hand off Shadow's soar shoulder.

He looked at the Hylian in disgust.
"Why did you let me live?" he asked angrily,
"I was about to ,when your friend over there stopped me." Link said to the fuming Boy.

Shadow then spat on the ground.
"You should have killed me when you had the chance!" He blurted out.

"Before you turned into that...thing, you yelled out I will avenge her," Link told Shadow.
"I..its none of your business!" Shadow yelled.

"I think he should know," Kilik said.
"Shut up Kilik!" Shadow yelled at his companion.

"Your going to tell him.." Kilik yelled at Shadow,
"He holds the legendary Soul Calibur. He may be able to aid you," Kilik told him.
"Fine..." Shadow grumbled...

*5 minutes later*

"And that is why I must kill this man called Nightmare." Shadow concluded.
Link stood up, "You should come along with me." Link said to Shadow.

"No!" Shadow yelled, "I belong here!"
"I can take over," Kilik said.

"You have a better chance of meeting Nightmare again if you follow me," Link stated.
Shadow thought for a moment.

He then looked at Link.
"Fine, i'll come." He said, "its only because I have a better chance of fighting Nightmare!"
"Thats fine!" Link said. "two fighters are better than one!"

"okay then," Kilik said,
"First we feast, then you two can head out."

*2 hours later*

"So, your name is Rhys huh?" Link said to Shadow.
"Don't call me that!" Shadow grunted.
"Okay then Rhys," Link said, as he chewed some chicken.
Shadow grumbled all through dinner.

Once dinner was done, Link and Rhys gathered thier weapons, and headed off.
As Kilik was waving behind them, Link took out his map.

"So, where are we going?" Rhys asked his new companion.
"We are headed towards the country of Alioth." Link said, as he put away his map.

Rhys looked at Link strangely.
"Are you insane?!" Rhys asked Link.
"Alioth isn't a country, it is a fortress the size of a country!" Rhys yelled.

"Thier leader, Taki is one of the three edgemasters!" Rhys told him.
"What is an Edgemaster?" Link asked him.

Rhys had a dumbfounded look on his face.
"You don't know about the legendary three ones?"
He asked.

"No," Link said.
"well, then you must have lived under a rock all your life, if you havn't heard of them."
Rhys said.

"The three Edgemasters, otherwise known as the mortal gods of strength, are the three strongest humans that live on this planet." Rhys told, "Taki, Maxi, and Xianghua, are the names of these destructive humans." Rhys said, "Taki is the one who commands Alioth. And you think we can defeat her and her army?"

"There's a will, there's a way," Link said.
"You are hopeless," Rhys said.

The two swordsmen were about to confront the three edgemasters of Asia. Thier toughest challenge yet.

CHAPTER 27

***********************************************

A guard stumbled, into an alaborate looking room.
"M..master Taki!" the guard yelled out, informing he was there,
"We have just spotted two men wielding swords coming towards the citadel."

A woman sitting upon a throne looked at the trembling guard in disgust.
"One of the men carried an odd looking sword," the guard told her.

"Soul calibur?!" the woman asked, as she lunged out of her seat, towards the guard.
"What did it look like?" the woman asked.

"It had a decorative onyx coloured hilt, and it had a splitted blade," he told her.
"so, the old fool knew what he was talking about," the woman said to herself,
"He is the one he told us about. You! tell the guards to approach on the defensive, I want to see if they are strong enough," the woman yelled at the guard.

"Y..yes master Taki, right away!"
Once the guard was out of the giant room,
the woman jumped back into her seat.
He tight red jump suit gleamed in light from the windows in the room.

****************************************

"Now that were going to have to fight the edgemasters," Rhys said to Link,
"It means we are very close to Asia's border."

"The three edgemasters, Taki, Maxi and Xianghua, protect the Asian border at all costs.
But there is said to be a fighter that is stronger than all three combined," Rhys said,
"He is called the grand edgemaster. He protects the Europiean border." Rhys exclaimed.

"So, even if we somehow defeat these three edgemasters," Link said,
"There is an even stronger edgemaster, waiting for us in europe?"
Yep," Rhys responded,
"Great," Link said under his breath.

The two could see the large structure on the horizon.
It was true, the building was indeed as large as a country.

"Wow, I didn't think it would be this huge!" Link said, as he stared at it in awe.

Just then, a guard on a horse came galloping towards the duo.
Rhys put his hand on Mobius's hilt, as the horse came to a stop.

"Halt! You shall come no further!" the guard said, in an angry tone.
"By the order of Master Taki, you shall not pa-" The guard stpped talking, as Rhys took his sword out of the man's stomach.

As the man hit the ground, Link looked at his companion.
"What did you do that for?!" Link asked.
"He talked too much," Rhys said, as he sheathed the broad sword.
"He was just doing his job, oh never mind, lets use this horse to get there faster." Link said, as he pointed towards the black stallion.

Once the duo was in range, the guards shot off thier catapults at them.
They were barely dodging the flaming Trebutchets, as the came towards the front gate.

"How do we open this thing?!" Link asked.
"We don't," Rhys said, as his hand started to glow with a blue aura.
And in a flash of light, the door was destroyed. Pieces of wood flew every where, and the smoke blinded some of the guards on the other side.

Just then, the guards could hear two swords drawing in smoke.
As the guards readied thier weapons, a large bolt of lightning shot out of the smoke, and hit a defenceless guard.

As the guard lay dead, Link and Rhys jumped out of the cloud of smoke.
As thier swords gleamed in the rays of the sun, the men were terrified for thier lives.

Link attacked to the right, and Rhys attacked to the left.
As numerous guards hit the ground, one guard ran for his life.
Just then, Rhys flew on top of him, and stuck mobius into his head.
As blood splattered everywhere, Rhys looked at Link.

"This is way too easy," he said to the hylian.
"They must be planning something.." Link responded, as they infiltrated the Citadel.

"Master Taki!" Aa guard yelled, as he entered her throne room.
"What is it?" the woman asked,
"Its the two men, they have infiltrated Alioth!" The guard yelled in terror,
"hmmmm... they are good, but they still have a long ways to go if they are to defeat me!" Taki yelled.

************************************************

Nightmare shoved Soul edge into another man.
As his blue soul was devowered by Soul Edge, Isuka let out a sigh.
"I will be fully restored soon." Isuka said.

Just then, a raven circled around Nightmare's head.
"As Nightmare was about to kill it, he noticed who it was.

"Death?" Nightmare asked, just then, the girl garbed in green appeared out of no where.
"You still remember his name huh?" the girl said, as the raven landed on her left shoulder.

"Tira..." Nightmare said under his breath.
"Whats scum like you doing walking around these parts?" he asked.

"Scum? at least i'm not a puppet that is being controlled by a sword!" Tira yelled out, as the raven jumped off her shoulder.

"Calm down Tira," Isuka said, as he appeared in his shapeless form.
"Incase Nightmare here dies, you'll be the puppet, and he'll be the scum."
Nightmare looked away in disgust as Tira smiled.

"What makes you think i'll be your little pawn in your plan to rule all dimensions?" Tira asked him.
"Remember our deal?" Isuka asked.
"...yes..." she mumbled.
"Good!" Isuka said, as his body went back into Soul Edge.

"Well, i'm gone. Goodbye Siegfried...oops I mean Nightmare." She said on purpose.
"Siegfried...why does that name seem so.... familiar...?" Nightmare asked himself, as he teleported once again.

********************************************

As Link and Rhys burst open another elaborate looking door, they saw before them, a giant man wielding two giant Butcher Knives.

"You won't go any further!" the man yelled out.
"I will cut you up!"

"check out this loser..." Rhys wispered to Link.
Link ignored his companion, as he drew Soul calibur.

Rhys sighed, as he drew Mobius.

The man's knife came crashing down, Link and Rhys jumped out of the way of the slow attack.
As the man turned around, Rhys jumped towards the man, and grabbed his face with his hand.
Then, his hand started to glow yellow, and Rhys blasted a bolt of lightning out of it.

As the bolt singed his face, the man held it in agony.
Then, Link came in for the finishing blow.
He stabbed the man's back, and ripped the wound downwards.
Blood spewed everywhere.

The fell to the ground.
"Good, he's out, now lets kill him." Rhys said, as his hand started to glow red.
"No!" Link said.
"I let him live on purpose!"

Rhys looked confused,
"Why? he tried to kill you, you should repay the favour," he told him.
"I only kill monsters, not humans." Link said.

"Fine..." Rhys grumbled, as the glowing in his hand stopped.
The duo blasted the next door open.
expecting of what would be waiting for them on the other side.

************************************************************
CHAPTER 28

*******************************************

As the pieces of the wooden door hit the ground, Rhys, and Link saw a giant stairway leading up.
Link was concerned about the ridiculous amount of stairs they would have to go up.

"We can't even see the end of them!" Link told Rhys.
"Stop complaining..." Rhys grumbled, as they slowly walked up the stairs.

Just then, they saw a knife come flying at them.
They dodged it, but Link lost his footing, and fell down ten stairs.

"What was that?!" Link yelled, as he held his head in pain,
"That was a knife genious," Rhys said, sarcastically, as they kept going up.

For some reason, it was getting foggy, and now the duo couldn't see infront of them.
Just then, another knife flew by, and cut Rhys's left cheek, as it flew by.

Rhys got angry, and his hand started to glow yellow. He shot about half a dozen of lightning bolts into the fog.

Then, there was silence.
"I guess I killed them," Rhys said victoriously.
Then, about eight men carrying swords, burst out of the fog, and charged the heroes.

Rhys saw this coming, so he unsheathed Mobius before this happened.
He thrusted his broad sword into one man's stomach.

he pulled it out, crimson stains on the golden blade of his sword dripped, as he slashed another man in the chest.

"Nothing will stop me from getting revenge..." Rhys thought, as he decapitated another man.
Link pulled out his fairy bow, and strung an arrow, he then put a bomb on the arrow head, and then lit the bomb.

"Rhys! fly out of there!" Link yelled, "for the last time, call me SHADOW!" Rhys yelled, as he turned his head to Link.
He then saw the arrow he was going to fire, and then teleported in the air, and flew upwards.

As the men were wondering what was going on, Link fired the arrow.
it hit the ground, and exploded.

Link hit it close enough, so that the men could escape with thier lives.
Unfortunatley, Rhys had something diffrent in mind.

His hand glew blue, and he fired a beam of ice out of it.
The beam froze the men where they layed.

Link looked at his companion once again.
"Why?!" he yelled, "can't you just let them live?"
Rhys looked at Link with a stern look.

"No." He said, as he continued walked up the plight of stairs.
Link sighed, as he followed.

**********************************************************

Nightmare stopped running.
"Whats the matter?" Isuka asked his minion.

Then Nightmare let out a terrible scream, as he held his head in agony.
"Fredrick!!!!" He yelled, as he hit the ground.

**********************************************************

*4 years ago.*

A man got out of bed. A strange noise had woke him up.
He walked around his small house for a bit.

Then he entered his Father room, to see if it woke him up too.
When he turned on the light, he was terrified of what he saw.

He saw a lifeless body, impaled. Blood stained the bed sheets.
"Father?!" the man said.

"who did this to you? please don't leave me...... FATHER!!!"

The man rushed back into his room.
He opened his closet, to find that the Zweihander he found, had blood on the tip of it.

"n...no.. no what have I done?!"
he asked himself, as he dropped to the ground.
"I killed my father without even knowing it... It's YOU! you used me to kill him!"
He yelled, as he pointed to the blade.

Just then, he heard a voice.
"join me..." it said, in a moaning tone.

The man got scared, and he ran away from it.
Then, the eye on the sword opened.

Then, long withered branches shot out of the sword and strapped around the fleeing man.
Then the sword started to suck in all things.
It started to pull him in. The man tried his hardest to pull away from it, but couldn't get a good grip.

He was very close to the sword now. The man felt his right arm twitch. He looked at it, and it grew into a giant brown monstrosity replaced it. The man screamed in terror.
The middle of the mutated hand, had a mouth with giant teeth on it.

The man tried to look away in disgust, as he could see all of his father's studies fly into the sword.
And on impact, they disintergrated.

The man's eyes, widened, as he tried to grab the bureau that was beside him.
But he slipped, and continued to get closer to the sword.

He heard the voice again.
"You will be my new host!" it said,
"I hope we kill to no end!"

then, when the man's body hit the sword, a flash of light emmited from it.

When the light faded, a man in dark armour stood where the man used to.
He looked at the sword, and grabbed the hilt.
The voice called out to him again.
"From now on, you shall be called Nightmare!" It said

"What should we do first.. master?" the man asked the sword.
"first we shall kill all the people in this village."
He said.

"Good... Nightmare said,
"just killing my father didn't satisfy me."

As the night went on, Nightmare killed over an over again.
Until the whole village was slaughtered.

The blue souls of the people were sucked into the sword.
"I need to be restored, if I am going to rule all worlds."
It said.

"Do not worry," Nightmare said.
"I will kill in your name.. Isuka."

and in a flash of light, he was gone.
A girl jumped out of a nearby tree once the man dissapeared.

"What do we have here?" she chuckled.
Her crimson coloured eyes gleamed in the moonlight.

"Someone who loves to kill? I thought I would never find someone as evil as me!"
She said, with a devilish grin on her face.

Then, she vanished.

*************************************************************

As the duo finally got to the top of the stairs, Link took out a bottle filled with water.
"you want some?" Link asked Rhys,
"I have my own water..." Rhys said.

"But i'll use your bottle once your done."
Rhys put the bottle on the ground, and put his hands out.
He shot out fire in one hand, and ice in the other.

Once they hit, water poure out of the collision, and poured into the bottle.
"Ummm..you can keep that bottle..." Link said.

"I have three more."
Once they were done, they walked over to the side of the building.
"That was alot of stairs!" Link said.

They couldn't see the ground from where they were.
"Well, I guess the edgemaster is in there." Rhys said, as he pointed to the structure before them.

As they walked towards the building, they drew thier swords, incase anything happened.

CHAPTER 29

*******************************************

Rhys blasted the elaborate door open. Inside were ten guards, all ready to attack.
Rhys's hand was still glowing red, he saw a man charging at him in the corner of his eye. Rhys turned around, and impaled the guard with a spear of fire.

The man fell to the ground, as the other guards charged at the duo.
Link drew Soul calibur.
He could see three guards running towards him.

He readied his blade, and in one giant swipe, all three hit the ground.
Rhys had killed the last of his guards.

Link walked by the fallen guards.
"I didn't hit any of your vital points, you'll live," he said.

As they were walking, Rhys turned around, and saw the three surviving guards run towards him.
He sighed, and readied his fire.
He fired the beam, and it engulfed them.

As the guards screamed in agony, Link looked at Rhys again, "...never mind..." Link said, as he looked away from his companion.

As they entered the main throne room, they saw about two hundred guards at the bottom of a few stairs.
On the top of those stairs, was a giant throne. Someone was sitting in that throne.

"So," Rhys said, as he grabbed the hilt of Mobius, "we finally fight one of the edgemasters."
The guards all took thier fighting stance. The woman stood up.
"Stop," she said, and in one quick fashion, all the guards dropped thier weapons.

"So, you have come.." The woman said, as she jumped high into the air, and landed onto the ground.
Link was drawing Soul Calibur.
"So I guess he was right after all..." she said to herself.

"Who's he?" Link asked her.
The woman looked at him...
"You mean the grand edgemaster?" Taki asked,
"Yes," Link said, "who is he?"

"The grand edgemaster's identity is only known to few, tell you what, if you can defeat me, I will tell you his identity." She said, as she took out one of her ninja swords.
"Sounds fair to me!" Link said, as he fully took the holy out of it's sheathe.

Rhys also, took out Mobius.
As the guards stood back, Taki took out her second ninja sword.
And the battle begun.

**************************************************

Tira kept following the black knight wherever he went.
"hmmmm..." Tira thought, "I wonder who he'll kill next?"
Tira looked at her raven, it's feathers as black as night.

"It's not my fault I kill," Tira said to her raven,
"It was how I was raised."

**************************************************

*3 years ago*

"Tira!" A man called out, "you have another mission!"
Tira was in her room. She was playing with her little pet raven.

Then, a giant man barged open the door.
The raven got scared, and flew out the now opened door.
"Do you want to be killed?" he asked in an angry tone,
Tira looked at him with no response.

"We are the birds of passage!" The man yelled,
"we can't have people slacking on the job!" he yelled.

"fine," Tira said, as she jumped off her bed.
"Good," the man said, "meet us in the conference room."
He closed the door.

As Tira grabbed her Ring blade, she opened the door.

She opened the door to the conference room.
There, she saw about ten people sitting in chairs around a large wooden table.

"Tira your mission is to kill a man called Vercci," the man said, he lives in the country of Aldebaran.
Tira was somewhat dissapointed.
"All the way in Asia?" She asked,
"but were in Europe! and besides, how am I supposed to get pass the edgemasters?"

"you'll get around by using the sea.' He told her.
"Then you'll travel by foot there."

"Fine." Tira said, "i'll head out tomorrow."

* 3 months later *

Tira entered the underground society once again after her long mission.
"The target was eliminated," Tira called out, but no one responded, "did you hear me?"
Tira asked. Still no reply.

Once she opened the door to the conference room, her eyes widened, as all of her accomplises lay dead on the ground.

Tira looked at her lifeless master. She saw a glowing metal fragement beside him.
She picked it up, "I wonder what this is?" She wondered, as she put it in her pocket.

"I no longer have to work for this stupid society!" She said with a happy grin on her face,
"I'm free!"

She then set out into the world, only this time without an objective she had to complete.

She had finally settled into a quiet family, and all went well, for now.
Until one day...

"Fly home my friend!" Tira said, as she set a caged bird free.
Just then, her family came home from the market place.
The little boy was ready to greet his new bird.

As he walked over to Tira, he saw that there was no bird in the cage.
The boy started to cry. The parents ran over to thier son.
They looked up at Tira with angry faces.

They started to scold her. All the commotion was starting to get to Tira, it might have been the crying, or the scolding, then everything went black.

When she woke up, she saw her familie's corpses lying on the ground.
It had awoken her inner killing spirit.

After about 5 months, Tira was starting to go crazy.
She had no reason to live in the world.

She would stumble into villages, and slaughter every single resident that lived there.
She killed and killed, until one day, she heard the slaughters of Nightmare.
"somebody like me...?" Tira said to herself, as her faith skyrocketed.

Tira then used all her time to track down the black knight.
Until one day, in the country of Cepheus, she confronted a familiar man.

"If you are searching for Nightmare, the man said, "Then you should track down the sword. nightmare is just a puppet." This crushed tira's dreams.
"Zasalamel, you fool!" She yelled at him. "I just want to be with someone who enjoys to kill!"

The man's scythe gleamed in the sunlight. "Tira, you will regret it sooner or later." He said.
"It will turn it's gaze towards you if Nightmare is killed."

Tira was already gone.
"fool," the man said to himself, and in a flash, he was gone.

********************************************************************************

Link spit the blood out of his mouth, as Taki rushed towards Rhys.
Rhys tried to block, but taki was too fast.
she kicked him in the side.

Rhys fell to the ground, holding his side in pain.
Link got back up, and attacked once again.
Taki slashed link's stomach with her ninja sword.

As Link flew backwards, he thought of an idea.
He pulled out Lehran's Medallion, and threw it at Rhys.

"Rhys, catch!" Link yelled, as Rhys caught the circular object.
"Try to get angry!" Link yelled.

Rhys remembered the day when his sister died.
And if he were to die, all of his training were to be for nothing.

Rhys screamed in pain, as his teeth grew, and eyes turned red.
The medallion glew with red aura, and then shot inside of Rhys.

Rhys screamed again, as his skin turned golden.
And in a flash of light, he transformed into a dragon once again.

Link jumped onto his back, and directed him.

They finally stood a chance once again.
As Taki readied her blades, she was ready for anything.

*****************************************************

CHAPTER 29 PART 2

***********************************************

Taki flew in the air, as Rhys whacked her with his golden scaled tail.
The ninja hit the ground.

Link was still sitting on Rhys.
"Having trouble?" Link asked sarcastically.

"Silence!" Taki yelled out.
"I will kill you." She vowed, as she unsheathed one of her ninja swords.
This time it glew with a strange blue coloured aura.

"Prepare to die!" Taki yelled, as she dashed towards the duo with high speed.

***********************************************

*4 years ago*

Taki had already hunted down, and destroyed another demon,
that resided in mizar forest.
At that same time, Nightmare was born.

This caused a reaction, all across europe and Asia.
Taki could feel the evil everywhere, just then, a small metal fragement came crashing to the ground.
Taki heard this, so she jumped back to where the sound was made.

She inevitably found it.
When she picked it up, she could sense great evil in it.
She decided to make another sword from it.

She embedded the fragement in the ninja sword.
After 3 days, it was finished.

"Finally," Taki said, as she held the powerful blade in her hands.
"I shall call you Rekki-Maru."
She said, as she sheathed it in it's scabbard.

It started to glow emensley, even though it was in it's sheathe.

*********************************************************************

Taki's sword started to shine brightly, as it left an after image of her.
Link was starting to get somewhat dizzy.
Then, Taki jmped high upwards. She took out suction cups, and landed on the celing.

She hid in the shadows, so they couldn't see her.
Link and Rhys looked around for her.

Then, two sharp kunai knives flew out of the shadows, and stabbed Rhys in the chest.
As Rhys let out a roar, two shurikens flew out. They were aimed at Link.
Link took out Soul Calibur, and smacked them away.

Then, Taki flew out with a ball and chain.
She threw it around Rhys's scaly neck, and pulled.
Link looked up, and about 10 kunai were holding it up.

The chain was starting to choke Rhys.
Rhys then, fell to the ground.

He reverted back to human.
The kunai knives were still in him.
As blood gushed out, Link knew he had to finish this now.

Link then noticed, wen she charged up her sword, the aura was the same colour as soul charge's aura.
She was using Soul charge.

Link took out his metal fragement, and squeezed it in his hand, he could feel the power flowing through his viens.

Link dashed towards the edgemaster with all of his speed.
He took out Soul calibur, and the Hylian shield.

Link got close enough to her.
He then bashed her with the shield. As she was recovering from the blow, Link jumped up.

Then, link slashed at Taki's shoulder. It made a deep wound.
As Link backflipped away from the edgemaster, she fell to the ground.
Blood was squirting everwhere.

As she cried in agony, Link sheathed Soul calibur.
Taki looked up at him.

"Why did you spare me?" she asked,
"I need to know who this grand edgemaster is.." he told her.

"Well, a promise is a promise," she said, as she wrapped a cloth around her shoulder.
"The grand edgemaster goes by the name of Heishiro." She said.

"Iv'e never heard of a man named Heishiro before..." Link said.
"Trust me." Taki said, "you have seen him before."

Link walked over to the fallen Rhys.
He took out the two kunai, and then popped a blue mushroom into his mouth.

Rhys opened his crimson coloured eyes soon after.
"w..what happened?" he asked.

"don't worry," Link said, " we can pass."

Taki then walked over to the two.
"You have passed the first gate," Taki said, "there are two more gates that stand in your way, good luck."

Once the two exited Alioth, Link checked his map. They were headed towards the country of Castor, the second gate.

"They say Maxi is the edgemaster who resides in Castor." Rhys told Link.
"Then I guess it's going to be more difficult than ever." Link replied.

The two entered Castor's border, unbeknowest to them that they were being followed.

CHAPTER 30

*********************************************

Link and Rhys had already entered Castor's border.
Where another edgemaster awited for them.

"Maxi is said to reside in the infamous temple named the "Swordsman's grave,"
Rhys told him.

"How do you know all this information?" Link asked,
"iv'e been around," he replied.

Link checked his map.
"Before we can get to this "Swordsman's grave, we need to pass a large open field called Castor's eye,
Link told Rhys.

"That sounds like a good oppurtunity for thieves to ambush us." Rhys said, as Link put away his map.
"Well, we can't go around it," Link said, pointing to the mountains on each side of the field.
"Lets, just hope no one spots us."

As the duo entered the vast field, Rhys heard something, and stopped moving.
"Whats he matt-" Link said, but was cut off by Rhys's large shushing noise.
"Be quiet," Rhys said, as he tried to hear the sound again.

In the mountains, archers strung thier arrows, ready to fire at any sudden movement.
Rhys grabbed the hilt on his sword. The archer pulled back on the bow string.
Rhys slowly pulled out Mobius, and then the archer fired.

The arrow hit Rhys's unsheathing sword dead on.
Rhys looked at Link.
"RUN!" Rhys yelled.

*********************************************

Tira followed Nightmare wherever he went.
An it was starting to annoy him.

Isuka was thinking to himself,
"I'm sensing a strong power near us..."
he thought.

Just then, a man clothed in white appeared behind them.
Nightmare readied Soul Edge, and turned around to meet his opponent.

"You are on the road to defeat," the man told him.
"The boy is getting stronger everyday." He said.

"So what?" Nightmare snorted back.
"I will kill him."

Tira turned her head towards the man.
"Zasalamel," she murmered.

"Prepare for your defeat." The man said, and in a flash, he dissapeared.
"Nonsense..." Nightmare told himself, as he sheathed Soul Edge.

***************************************************

Link and Rhys were running for thier lives, as arrows skimmed past them.
Link looked up, and saw a small house.
"Rhys, if we can get to that house, were safe!" Link yelled happily.

Rhys ran as fast as he could, and reached the house first.
His hand glew red, and blew the house door open.
Link ran inside, and so did Rhys.

They saw some furniture inside the house.
"We use this to block the entry." Rhys said.

The duo pushed all the furniture to where the door used to be.
They could hear arrows hitting the wooden appliances.

then, the arrows stopped firing.
Link and Rhys were waiting for something big.
But it never came.

It was already dusk, and it was starting to rain.
Link lit his lantern, and put it between him and Rhys.

They tried to go to sleep, but all the strange noises kept them up.

"Tomorrow morning, we make a run for it." Rhys told his partner.
"Agreed," Link replied.

After about 5 hours later, the strange noises were starting to get more frequent.
Rhys looked at Mobius, and grabbed it, Link did the same.

Then, the furniture exploded.
and about twelve thieves ran into the small house.

Rhys blasted lightning bolts into three of them.
Link slashed a thief in the arm.

The eight thieves then charged at them.
As they clanged swords for a while, Link and Rhys were getting fatigued from lack of food and water.

Then, with all his might, Link charged up a Kai-ten-giri.
And ripped through four of them.

Rhys swiped Mobius, and ripped two thieves in half.
The two guards were frightened, and ran out the door.

Link sheathed Soul Calibur.
Rhys shot off two fire balls at the escaping thieves.

They hit them dead on.
The two were engulfed in flame, and then hit the hard wet ground.

Link looked at Rhys.
"What?" Rhys asked.
Link turned back. "We should head out as soon as possible," he said.

"Right," Rhys said back.
The two gathered thier things, and ran out of the house.

Just then, a man hiding behind the house stepped out.
"Impressive," the man said, as he saw the two run towards the mountains.
"You have gotten stronger since the last time I saw you Link,"

The man continued to follow them.
Hoping he could show his face to them sooner or later.


*****************************************************

CHAPTER 31

****************************************

Link took out his map, they were only a few miles away from thier destination.
"Boy, is it ever humid," Rhys told Link, as he wiped the sweat off his forehead.

"Stop complaining," Link told him, "we only have three more miles to go!"
Rhys grunted, as they kept on walking.

Rhys was kicking a pebble along, to keep him occupied.
The clitter-clatter of the pebble was starting to get to Link.

"Will you please stop that!" Link yelled.
"Fine..." Rhys yelled, back, as he stopped kicking.

After, walking over a giant hill, they finally saw the infamous swordsman's grave.
"Finally!" Rhys said with relief.

Rhys saw the gate that sttod in thier way.

After the sharp parts of metal fell to the ground, Rhys's hand stopped glowing.
As Link and Rhys entered the mysterious dungeon, they wondered if the name of the temple was real.

A man spotted the two, as they made thier way into the temple.
He then, ran off in a hurry.

The man then barged open a large door.
"Sir!" The man said, as he saluted.

A man was sitting cross-legged on the ground.
A nunchaku was lying beside him.

"What is it?" asked the man, who didn't even bother to turn his head at him.

The man replied, "two men have just breached the temple!"
The man now had a grin on his face.

"So, Taki failed. These men are stronger than we anticipated," he said.
"rally half of your men to the front of the temple, the other half will be with me."
He said, as he stood up out of his previous position.

"y..yes sir!" The man said, as he walked out of the room.
The man grabbed his nunchaku.
"The old geezer was right after all..." The man said to himself.

****************************************

The man clothed in white kept following Nightmare wherever he went.
"Want do you want with us?" Nightmare yelled at the man.

"You will be defeated by him." The man said,
"And then you, will need a new host."

Isuka pondered over this for a moment.
Then, he felt a surge of magical power flow through him.
"What was that?!" Isuka asked himself,

"Whats wrong master?" Nightmare asked,
"I think we have found a new vessel,"
Isuka said, as he tried to get a lock on who is releasing the magic.

*****************************************

"Just a little more..." A woman said, as the triangular portal was starting to appear.
She lost control, and fell to the ground.
She got back up. "I'm too fatigued to try it." She told her self.

Just then, a light in the castle's dining room lit up.
Then, the knob on the door turned, and out came a man in armour.

"Princess, what are you doing up so late?" The man asked.
The woman pulled her hood down, revealing her long blonde hair.

"I couldn't sleep." The woman told him.
"Princess Zelda, please don't lie," the guard told her.
"Your worried about Link, aren't you?" he asked.

The princess of hyrule, turned her head away from the guard.
"He's been gone for almost a year, I wonder if he's alright,"
The guard walked towards her, "don't worry, Link is alright, I can feel it."
The guard told her.

"You'd better get back inside," the guard said,
"The weather is getting worse."
Zelda walked back inside, with a concerned look on her face.

"Link...be careful..."

*****************************************

"Curses, I lost it." Isuka yelled to himself.
"Do not worry master," Nightmare told him,
"you will get it again, i'm sure of it."

The clothed in white was now sitting on the largest branch of an old tree.
His scythe gleamed in the summer breeze, and he jumped to the ground.

"remember this, puppet," the man said to the dark knight,
"You will lose everything."
Nightmare took out Soul Edge quickly, the attachment branches broke in an instant, as the eye of the blade squinted in pain.

"I have already lost everything!" He yelled in an altered voice.
Then, a piercing sensation of pain, flowed through Nightmare's head.

Isuka looked at his pawn.
"The man he once was, is trying to get out."
He told himself.

"It will only be matter of time, until my grasp turns to another more powerful being."
As Nightmar writhed in pain, the man in white dissapeared. a few leaves in the tree fell off, and hit the ground.

**********************************************

Link and Rhys had just entered a rather large room.
"The temple looked smaller from the outside," Link told his partner.

Just then, the burst open, and fifty guards came running out.

They stared at the two warriors for about ten seconds.
Link looked at Rhys, and smiled, Rhys smiled back, as they drew thier blades at the same time.
The battle has begun.

CHAPTER 31 PART 2

**********************************************

The men dropped thier weapons, as thier lifeless bodies hit the ground.
The duo sheathed thier blades, and continued to walk the large catacombs of the temple.

"I wonder what weapon this Maxi guy will use.." Link pondered,
"they say he uses nunchaku," Rhys answered.
"Oh, then this will be pretty easy," Link exclaimed, as he let out a large breath of air.

A guard burst open the doors of the room where Maxi was.
"Sir, the men have wiped out Hector's squad! And they are approaching at a fast pace,! the man said worringly.

Maxi grinned with joy.
"That means, they are worthy enough to be killed by Soryuju." He said.
"Soryuju sir?" asked the man.

Maxi leaped at the unsuspecting guard, and grabbed him by the neck.
"Thats the name of my weapon." Maxi yelled angrily, as the man's feet raised from the ground.
"Get your men ready to attack," Maxi yelled, as he threw the man to the ground.

"y-yes sir," the man said, as he got up, and dusted off his pants.
"Idiocy," Maxi muttered to himself.

Link and Rhys had turned to a very long hallway.
"I can barely see the end of it." Link said to his partner.
"Wait," Rhys said, as he put his arm infront of the hylian.

"I can hear marching at the end of the hall way."
"I don't hear anything," Link said.
"Thats wierd, you have big ears, but yo still can't hear it?"
Rhys said.

Link grumbled, as Rhys could hear the sound of it getting closer.
Just then, many armed men came in sight, and were charging at them.
Link and Rhys drew thier blades.

Link charged up for a Kai-ten giri, while Rhys put up his hand.
And in one swift move, they pulled off both of thier moves.
twenty soilders hit the ground in an instant.

A large pool of blood was emitting from the bodies.
Just then, more guards came running out.
"hmmmm, I say we take the head-on approach," Link said to Rhys.
"Agreed, Rhys said, as he readied Mobius.

****************************************************************

Zelda tossed and turned in her bed.
She was having a terrible nightmare.
As she started to moan, Zelda could feel an uneasy feeling around her.
Link she wasn't safe there.

Then all of a sudden, everything in her sight went black.
Then, fire emitted from the ground.
She turned around, only to see that the fire had surrounded her.

As she paniced, she heard a bone chilling voice.
"I... sssseeeeee... yoooouuuuu..." said the voice.
Zelda turned around quickly.

There was a giant flaming head floating before her.
yellow flame shot out of it's eye sockets.
Zelda was horrified.

It got closer towards her.
Zelda tried to cast her magic, but nothing happened,
as she looked down, she could see the ground cracking.
The creases then burst out in flame.

Zelda could see the omnious presence getting closer with every second.
Then, the entity opened it's mouth. Inside the firey whole, a giant blood shot eye appeared in the middle of it.

Zelda tried to walk back, only to have her back scorched in flame.
As she bent down in pain, she raised her head, and saw that the head was about ten eet away from her.
"Joooooiiiin... meeeeeee.." It said, as it's mouth got wider.

Zelda started to breath deeply, as she didn't now what to do.
The head was now five feet away, and getting closer.
Zelda held her head in fear, and closed her eyes.
Waiting for something terrible to happen.

Just then, She raised her head out from the sweat covered pillow.
As she blinked a few times, she saw that there were guards standing right outside her room.
"Princess, whats wrong?" asked one of the guards.

"Nothing, I was having a bad dream, thats all," Zelda told them, as she put her hand on her chest.
"alright then, but if we hear more groaning from you, were going to have to call the doctor!" the guard joked, as he walked away.

Once the guards were out of range, Zelda let out a large sigh, and hit her wet pillow.
She was too scared to fall asleep again that night.

****************************************************************************************

As another wave of enimies hit the ground, a giant man wielding an axe came rushing towards the duo.
"You guys are dead!" yelled the man as he swung his giant axe at them. They jumped out of the way.
As the man was recovering from his attack, Link took out his fairy's bow.

He strung an arrow, and fired.
It impaled the man's right shoulder. He screamed in agony, as het kneeled to the ground.
He looked up, only to see Rhys stab his sword into his fore head.

As blood squirted down, the man's head hit the ground.
As Rhys was wiping the blood off of the golden blade, Link started to walk towards the end of the catacomb.

"Wait up!" Rhys yelled, as he ran towards his partner.
Link looked up at the giant door that sttod before him.
Rhys finally caught up to him.
"your'e a fast runner aren't you?" Rhys said.

"ts a natural gift," Link said, as he opened the door.
Once they opened the door, they saw a man waiting for them.

"I'm guessing that you are Maxi." Link said to him.
Maxi took out his nunchaku. "Correct," he responded.

Ten, in a fast move, Maxi jumped at Link, and whacked his hand with his nunchaku.
Link grunted, as Soul calibur flew out his hand.
Link turned around to grab the onyx hilt, only to get kicked in the back by the edgemaster.

As Link tumbled to the ground, Rhys charged at him, and swung horizantally with Mobius.
Maxi blocked, and jumped out of the way of the attack.

"Too slow!" Maxi said, as he counter attacked.
Rhys flew to the ground as well.

Link rose again, and grabbed the holy blade's hilt.
He swiftly swung the blade at the edgemaster.
the sword grazed his left arm.

Maxi held his arm, as he walked back from the hylian.
Blood was starting to drip down.

"Thats not good enough," Maxi said,
"then how's this?" Rhys asked.
Maxi was startled, he looked at the spot where he had fallen.
nothing was there.

Then, a giant golden blade struck out of Maxi's stomach.
"As maxi looked at the blade in fear, Rhys's head appear beside him.
"You should have pay more attention," Rhys said, "you could have lived."

Maxi tried to say something, but whenever he opened his mouth, blood would spew out.
Then, Maxi's eyes went white, and the edgemaster hit the ground.
Rhys took his blade out of him.

"These edgemasters are getting way too easy..." Rhys said, s he sheathed his broad sword.
"Oh well," Link said, "we should head out towards the final gate."
"Finally, we'll be in europe soon," Rhys said to himself.

The two made thier way out of the temple.
Link checked his map. The final gate was a country named Algol.
Once they were out of sight, a man appeared out of the shadows,
"it's a shame that Maxi died," The man said, as he kicked his corpse.

"You have grown stronger my boy," he said to himself.
He then dashed towards Link and Rhys's direction, keeping his pursuit intact.
"We will cross blades soon," he said to himself, as he kept running.

*****************************************************

CHAPTER 32

******************************************

Zelda woke up with a large yell.
She had the same dream she had yesterday.

Zelda sighed, as her head hit the soft pillow.
"It's only a dream," she repeated to herself, as her eyelids got heavier and heavier.
Her eye lids finally closed, and she went back to sleep.

******************************************

Link and Rhys have finally made it to the final gate of Asia.
"Were almost to Europe!" Link shouted happily.
"Who cares?" Rhys grunted, "it isn't like the whole world is diffrent, if we step into another country."

"Have you ever been to Europe?" Link asked his partner.
"Nope," Rhys replied back.

"Why are we going to Europe anyways?" Rhys asked,
"The fragement I have, glows brighter and brighter by each day. It's a part of Soul edge, and I guess it attracts each other's where abouts." Link said, "It seems that Nightmare stays in one part of Europe most of the time."

"People say that Nightmare travels to an old castle in Germany daily," Rhys exclaimed.
"Why?" Link asked, "they say he goes there to repent of his sins. But other people say there is a portal to the underworld located there, and Nightmare comes once a day to feed on the souls that reside there,"
Rhys said, as he spat on the ground.

"Then I bet the castle is where wer'e going to have our little duel." Link said.
"Yep, and i'm ready for my revenge," Rhys said, with a devilish grin on his face.

Link took out his map.
"It says that we are headed towards a bunch of mountains called the corridors in the sky." Link said, as he pointed his finger on the picture of mountains on the map.

"There's no way to go around them either," Link said.
"Great," Rhys grumbled sarcastically.

"We'll be able to see them in about another four to five miles," Link told him, as he put his map back in one of his many pockets.

"Another big walk," Rhys said, with his arms folded.

"The next edgemaster is called Xianghua, right?" Link asked,
"yeah," Rhys said back.

"I guess we'll have to see how strong she really is," Link said to himself, as the two kept on walking.

*****************************************************

"Master, I need to go back to Osthrienburg, to collect more souls." Nightmare said to the demonic blade.
"Fine," Isuka said back, "I hope hades doesn't mind..." He said jokingly, as the two vanished in a flash of light.

Tira had finally caught up with the black knight, only to see him teleport again.
Tira sighed, as she sat on a large rock, to catch her breath.

"They are probably headed towards Osthreinburg again, to do thier daily routine.." she said, as she stood up. A black Raven landed on her shoulder.
"Come on death, lets go." Tira said to it, as she kissed the black bird on the wing.

*****************************************************

"I finally see them!" Link shouted out, as he pointed towards the mountains on the horizon.
"For once, your right!" Rhys shouted back.

"Were running low on water," Link told him, "I hope theres a pond at the bottom."
"Yeah," Rhys said, as they continued to walk towards their next destination.
The sun had already setted, and they could see the stars in the radiant night sky.

Once the two finally reached the base of the mountain, Link saw a small pond on the right.
Link ran up to it, and pooped the lid off of his water canister.

"Rhys, you should fill up your canister." Link shouted over to him.
Rhys was thinking of a way to gey up the tall structure, with only minor injuries.
Rhys heard a bit of what Link was saying, but he still ignored him.

Link frowned, as he squeezed the lid on the brown canister.
He ran towards his partner, to see what he was thinking about.

"We should wait until morning, until we try to climb this thing," Rhys pointed out.
"Good plan," Link said, "I'll get a fire started."

***************************************************************

Nightmare could see all the blue orbs being sucked into Soul edge.
Once they stopped coming, he grabbed it's hilt, and took it out of the castle's floor.
The castle has seen many battles before.
Most of the walls have been blown off, exposing it to the outside.
A large organ was located on the only surviving wall.

A large bell was located in the tallest tower of the castle.
It never rang again.

"Well, we should go to Belgium, to steal more lives," Nightmare suggested.
"Good plan," Isuka commented.
Nightmare vanished into thin air, waiting to see the terrified faces of people, when he impaled them with his sword.

****************************************************************

Link opened his eyes, it was morning.
Rhys was still snoring away.

"No wonder I couldn't get a good night sleep," Link pondered, as he rolled up his hand made sleeping bag.
Rhys finally rised up. Yawning, as he stretched for a moment.

"Well, we should start climbing." Rhys said, as he gathered his belongings.
"Yeah," Link replied.

Link could barely see the summit of the mountain.
Link groaned, as he latched his hands to the bedrock of the mountain.

Link was very high up now, and was worried, he would slip, and fall to his death.
"I havn't heard Rhys in a while," Link wondered to himself.

Just then, he saw Rhys fly up beside him.
"Whats the matter?" Rhys asked,
"having trouble?"

"Go away!" Link shouted, as he swatted his hand at his companion, almost falling in the process.
"i'll meet you at the top." Rhys said, as rose upwards.
Link grumbled, as he could feel his hands starting to lose grip.

"Come on, just a little more," Link said to himself, as he grabbed another ledge.

Just then, the ledge crumbled under the hylian's weight, and Link was now free falling.
Link screamed, as he started to think of a way out of this.
He then pulled out the green crystal.

He chanted the speel, and the crystal glowed brightly.
And in a flash, Link teleported.
He then reappeared at the top of the mountain.

Rhys was there waiting for him.
"I heard a loud scream..." Rhys said, "but i'm not going to ask about it."
Link grumbled, as they looked around.

The top of the mountain was like being on solid ground. There were trees, and plants, and a small pond.
"Now, lets go down," Rhys said, as he walked over to the opposite ledge.
He jumped off, and slowly levitated to the ground.

Link grumbled, as he climbed down the mountain.

Once he got to the ground, Rhys aid to him, "Why didn't you use your teleportation device?"
"I can only use it once a day," Link said, "and I already used it."

Rhys shrugged, "oh well, at least we can contine on..." he said.
And the two headed deeper into the land of Algol, waiting to challenge the edgemaster Xianghua.

CHAPTER 33

************************************************

After thier treachorous climb up the Corridors in the sky, Link and Rhys finally spotted a small town in the distance.
"A town? all the way out here?" Asked Link.

"Yes," said Rhys, "its called the city of Ashera. The last city in Asia."
"Its the town where edgemaster, Xianghua resides." he explained.

"Then I guess were only a few hours away from entering into Europe." Link said cheerfully.
Rhys shrugged, as the two headed towards the city.

After an hour of travelling, Link and Rhys finally reached Ashera.
Link went and knocked on the gate's dark wood.
"Um, could you please open the gate for two weary travellers?" Link yelled, as he kept knocking on the door.

Just then, a yellow beam came out of nowhere, and blew a hole into the door.
Then, five more blasts came, and obliterated half of the gate
Link turned around, and saw Rhys, lowering his smoking hand.

Link sighed, as he turned back around, and entered through the destroyed gate, clearing all the singed debris out of his path.

Once they entered, they could see all the citizens of the town stare at them.
One teenager shouted out at Rhys, "Hey big hair! why'd you go and destroy our gate?"
Rhys turned to him wit an evil look, "what did you just call me?" asked the annoyed warrior.

"You heard me," The boy yelled, as he picked up a medium sized stone.
"i'll let it slide, this time..." Rhys said to the boy, as he continued to walk past the people.
"Now leave here!" he yelled, as he threw the stone at him with all of his might.

Rhys caught the stone without even turning back.
He crushed the stone with his bare hand. He then eyed the youth, with an evil stare.
The boy got frightened, and then ra for his life.

As the two walked the bustling streets of the city, Link's stomach grumbled.
"We should stop, and eat before we fight Xianghua," Link told his companion.
"Yeah, i'm getting hungry too," Rhys said, as he put his hand on his stomach.

Once they saw the nearest eatery, they entered through it's door.
There were many people sitting at the wooden tables around them.

The two sat at the nearest table, and waited for the waitress to come out.
After five minutes, a girl wearing a red apron approached them.
She handed out menu's to them.

"I'll have a well done chicken," Link said, as he gave the waitress the menu.
"I'll have a steak, and a small bottle of whisky," Rhys said, as he passed the menu over to her.

"Your food will be ready in a moment." The girl said happily, as she walked away.
Link turned over to Rhys. "Youre not old enough to drink!" Link yelled,
"I won't get drunk. I promise." Rhys said back.

Afte thirty minutes of waiting, the waitress came out with thier plates.
"Enjoy!" She said, as she put the plates in front of them.

"Well, bottoms up!" Rhys said, as he popped off the lid of the beverage.
"I better not be the one to drag you out of here." Link said, as he bit into his chicken.

*thirty minutes later*

Rhys was almost falling out of his chair. Link couldn't bare to be seen with him.
"I thought this would happen." Link sighed, as he finished the last bit of his chicken.

Then, Rhys fell out of the chair, and hit his head on the table as he was falling.
He was out cold.

"So, what did he have?" said the man sitting beside Link.
"a small bottle of light whisky," Link said, humiliatingly.
"This guys pathetic!" The man said.
"He's underage." Link said back.

"Well, good luck waking him up." Said the man, as he turned around.

Link ate the rest of Rhys's steak, and then dragged him out of the resturaunt.
Rhys looked dead, the way Link was dragging him.

As they got outside, Link poured some water on Rhys's face.
Rhys woke up in a daze.
"Man..... I.....don't....feel......alright..." Rhys muttered, as he was having trouble getting up.
"Serves you right!" Link yelled.
"We should get info on where Xianghua is."

After fourty minutes of gathering info, and stuffing his face into a bucket numerous times, Rhys finally started to feel better.
"So, we know that the edgemaster lives in an ampittheatre," Link said,
"now we need to know where the ampittheatre is located."

"Iv'e heard that the theatre is located at the edge of town, right before the large tunnel." Rhys said.
"Tunnel?" asked Link, "The tunnel of Algol is pretty much the border that divides Asia and Europe." Rhys explained.
"That doesn't sound too bad..." Link said, as he remembered being thrown into the Gerudo's dungeon several times, while trying to save the four carpenters.

After a long walk through town, they finally reached the old ampittheatre.
"It looks, a little run down," Link said, as he pointed to all the broken windows.
"Oh well, we should probably enter." Rhys said.

Link knocked on the door.
He almost put a hole through it doing so.
Link knocked lighter, until a man in a black tuxedo came rushing to the door.

"May I help you?" asked the man.
"We would like to see Xianghua." Link told him.
"hmmmm.... right this way sirs." The man said, as he opened the door.

As the two walked into the theatre, they were ready for anything.


**********************************************************
CHAPTER 33 PART 2

************************************************

Link and Rhys stepped into the large building.
Suprisingly enough, it looked quite radiant inside the theatre.

Link stared in awe at all the large paintings, hung up on the wall.
Rhys didn't pay them no mind though.

The man in the tuxuedo, finally came to a halt infront of a black door.
"She's in here, sirs," said the man politley.
He opened the door. The large creaking noise would have caught the edgemaster's attetion by now.

As the two walked through the entrance, they found themselves in a giant auditorium.
They looked around for a moment, there was a sea of leather chairs, lined up facing the center stage.
The stage was enormous. On the stage, was a girl, swinging her small sword around at air.

"I wonder who that is?" Link asked, Rhys swatted Link on the back of the head for his stupitity.
"Idiot, thats Xianghua." Rhys yelled.
"Geez, sorry," Link said sarcasticaly, as he rubbed his now bruised head.

As the two walked down one of the aisles, the young woman spotted the two.
"Who are you?" asked the woman, as she stepped down the stairs to get off the stage.
"I am Link." Link said cheerfully, as he pointed to himself, "and that's Rhys!" He said, as he pointed towards his grumbling companion.

"What do you want?" asked the woman.
"We need to get into Europe." Link told her.
"Why?" she asked suspiciously.

Link then drew Soul Calibur. It's blade glew off of the mirrors around the theatre.
"Oh, I see..." She said, as she grinned.
"Your the one our master has told us about." She said.
"You must be strong, to defeat Taki and Maxi," she said, as she readied her sword.
Link eyed her, and then took his fighting stance.
Rhys had already drew Mobius, waiting for her to make a move.

"Let us begin!" Xianghua said, as she thrusted at Link.

**********************************************************

Zasalamel jumped to tree to tree, as he kept on the dark knight's trail.
"If Nightmare does die," he said to himself, "then I will have to take matters into my own hand."
Just then, Zasalamel, felt a sharp pain in his heart.
He stopped, and clung to his robe with his right hand.

"Don't worry," he said to himself, "it will all be over soon."

***********************************************************

"Zasalamel!" yelled a large man.
"Come over here!"
"Yes master, said a young boy.

"We have finally found the holy blade!" the man said happily.
"Soul Calibur?!" asked the youth.
"Yes!" cied the man.

As the young boy followed the man, they came to a large group of people, hudled around something.
As the youth pushed his way into the group, he spotted the onyx hilt of the sword.
"It really is Soul Calibur!" said the young boy.

The man pushed his way through the crowd also,
"get this artifact to a safe place!" yelled the man, as two men came over, and picked up the sword, and walked away with it.

After about a day, the young boy tried to peek at the pearlescent blade.
"No! you are not authorized to go in there!" yelled one of the guards, as he pushed the boy to the ground.
"Just a little look." Whined the boy.
"NO!" Yelled the guard, as he pointed his lance at him.

The next day, the boy snuck into the building while the guards were occupied with other business.
He walked up to the sword of men.
"Iv'e heard rumors, that you can grant immortality..." The boy said to himself.
"I can live forever.. all I need is you..."

The boy grabbed the hilt of the sword. But since he wasn't pure enough to control it,
the sword gelw brightly. It blinded the boy for a minute or so.
Once the glowing stopped, he heard a voice call out to him.
"Your wish, has been granted..."

"I don't feel any diffrent..." the boy said to himself..
"Lousy piece of junk..." The boy threw the sword on the ground.
Just then, a man walked into the building.

"Zasalamel, what have you done?!" yelled the man.
"This piece of garbage is nothing..." yelled the boy angrily, as he kicked the handle of the sword.
"How dare you!" yelled the man.
"You are hereby, banished from our tribe."

"Fine!" yelled the boy.
"I don't need you." And with that, the boy stomped out of the building.

*****************************************************************************

"That was four hundred years ago..." Zasalamel said to himself,
"I was a fool, to not believe in that cursed sword's power."
He held his chest tightly.
"I will not make a mistake like that, ever again.

******************************************************************************

Link blocked another of Xianghua's devastating blows.
Rhys came running behind her, and was about to swipe at her.
Rhys swung at thin air.

Xianghua appeared behind him.
She grabbed Rhys's Red vest, and lifted her up.
She jumped, and landed on Rhys's shoulders. Her high heels were digging into the pressure points on his shoulders. As he howled in agony, Xianghua, then jumped off his shoulders with alot of force.

Rhys hit the ground, face first. As blood was running down the corner of his mouth, Rhys could feel a pain in his back. Xianghua had just made a large horizontal slash across his back.

Then Link came out of nowhere, and kicked the edgemaster in the stomach.
As she was sent flying, Link ran up to her. She got back up quickly, and readied her blade once more.

Link and Xianghua clanged swords numerous times.
As Rhys got back up, he saw that his companion was having some trouble.
Rhys then took out Lehran's medallion.
As he grasped it, he could feel the power run through his viens.

Rhys lunged at the unsuspecting edgemaster, and slashed at her left shoulder.
Blood was spilling ot of the wound, as she hit the ground.
As she screamed in pain, She looked up at Rhys.

He was holding his broad sword right above her head.
"Good bye," Rhys said, maniacally.
As the sword was coming down, Link jumped in, and blocked the attack with Soul Calibur.
"What are you doing?!" Rhys yelled.
"You can't kill an innocent woman!" Link yeled. "She's only doing her job!"

Rhys was getting a little annoyed.
"Step aside Link!" Rhys yelled.
"If you want to kill her, you'll have to kill me also," Link yelled, as he stepped infront of the injured fighter.

Rhys sighed, as he sheathed Mobius.
"Fine, i'll be able to do some killing in Europe anyways," he said.
Link threw a mushroom at the fallen edgemaster.

"Eat it." Link told her,
"it will heal you." Xianghua looked at the mushroom, and then at Link.
She then popped the mushroom in her mouth. She could feel the large wound on her shoulder dissapear.
Link helped her back onto her feet.

"Thank you," Xianghua said.
"It was nothing," Link said back, "I was raised good."
"Well, thats good, unlike your blood lust friend over there." She said.
Rhys snorted, as he wiped the blood off of his mouth.

"Well, you have gained access to Europe." She said happily.
"All right then," Link said.
"We should get going then."

"Good luck!" Xianghua yelled out, as the two walked towards The tunnel of Algol.

Once they were out of sight, a man walked into the auditorium.
"So, you lost eh?" The man said,
"Oh, its you master Heishiro," Xianghua said.

"You think they are ready of the challenges ahead?" he asked.
"I think they'll do just fine..." Xianghua said.
"I'll still follow them, just to make sure..." The man said.

"Well, carry on." He said, as he dashed in Link and Rhys's direction.
"Don't go too hard on them..." Xianghua said.

****************************************************************

And thus, Link and Rhys have finally made it into Europe.
Thier skills will be put to the test, as they are getting closer and closer to thier goal.

*****************************************************************

*BOOK 1 PART 2*
*Souls and swords*

Location: Crystal mines, Merak, North eastern Ukraine, Eastern Europe.

CHAPTER 34

**************************************************************

As Xianghua lost sight of her master, she started to think about the man who almost kiled her.
"Rhys..." she said softly, as she closed her eyes.

**************************************************************

"You almost done packing Kilik?" Rhys asked, as he put small packets of food in one of his many bags.
"Almost!" Kilik yelled back, "I just need to pack some extra clothes."

Just then, the door of the house swung open. And a girl walked in.
"Xianghua..." Kilik said to himself, as he stopped packing.
"Kilik!" yelled the young girl, as she dashed towards him.

She opened her arms, and with them, hugged Kilik tightly.
Rhys rolled his eyes, as he ignored the two.
"Please don't leave me!" she yelled as her hug grew tighter and tighter.

"Don't worry," Kilik said, as he pryed the young girl off of him.
"I'll be back in three years." The girl's eyes started to drip with tears.
"I can't wait that long!" She yelled.

"Get a life..." Rhys snorted.
Xianghua looked at Rhys with a cross look.
"Shut up!" She yelled at him, but Rhys was no longer paying attention to her.
She grumbled as she turned back to Kilik.

"Promise me you will be back in three years." She said.
"I can't pro-," "PROMISE ME!" Xianghua yelled, as she cut off Kilik.
"all right, I promise." He said. The girl smiled happily.

"I'm going to Alioth, to be in the edgemaster project." Xianghua said,
"being the daughter of the leader of Merak, I need to go."
"You'll do fine." Kilik said.

"Good bye!" Xianghua yelled, as Kilik and his band traveled off to Schedar.
Rhys grumbled, as he turned around.

"And good luck..."

****************************************************************

"So this is Europe..." Link said to himself, "it doesn't look any diffrent.."
"Thats because it isn't!" Rhys said in a loud tone.
"geez..." Link said, as he backed off a bit.

Link took out his map.
"It says, that we are in a small piece of europe called Ukraine," he said, "inside Ukraine are two little countries, Merak, and Pollux. Thats where we are headed."
Rhys was completley ignoring him.

Link sighed, as he put his map back in his pocket.
"It said we are headed towards the crystal mines." Link said.
Rhys still ignored him.
"Its like talking to a brick wall..." Link said, as he kept on walking through the european country side.

They kept walking until they reached a small tunnel.
"I guess these are the mines," Link said.
"We should keep moving," Rhys said, "I have an uneasy feeling about this place."
"I thought you had an uneasy feeling about every place." Link said jokingly.

A small stone hit Link's head quite hard. Link twitched, as he turned to Rhys, who was lowering his hand, and grinning evily.
"hmph," link growled, as he entered the mine.

Link lit the candle on his lantern, as they ventured through the dark caves of the mine.
Water was dripping off of the stalactites that were located on the celing.
Link heard the flapping of bat's wings. He held his lanttern up high, and saw a flock of bats hanging upside down from the celing.
They reacted to the light, and they all flew towards Link.

Link covered his face with his hands, as they passed him.
"Dip stick..." Rhys said, as he walked past his companion.
"Link grumbled, as followed Rhys.

As they continued, Rhys's sensitive hearing, heard the crumbling of rock.
Rhys stopped. Link also stopped.
Rhys quietly, emitted a small red beam of energy, and fired it into the distance.
They then heard a large banging noise, and then they heard a body hit the ground.
Link's eyes widened, as numerous arrows shot out of the darkness.

Link quickly took out his hylian shield, and quickly put it up.
About eight arrows hit the shield.
Rhys was blocking only with his broad sword.
As he kept parrying, numerous bent arrows fell to the ground.

He then quickly shot five lightning bolts into the darkness.
Then, Link took out his bow, and strung a bomb arrow.
He pulled back on the string, and fired.
A large explosion came seconds later.
They could hear the screams of the assasins, as they died.

All of a sudden, the floor started to rumble.
They heard explosions all around them.
"There must have been buried dynamite under this mine..." Link said innocentley.
Rhys turned at Link with an angry look.
"Idiot! now the whole cave is coming down!"
Link frowned, as he dashed towards the exit, with Rhys following close behind.

As they could see the exit, they ran as fast as they could, because the celing was caving in behind them.
Just as they were about to get out, the celing caved in, infront of the opening.
They were trapped.

Link cursed, as he strung another bomb arrow to his bow.
He fired. The explosion cleared about half of the wreckage, but it wasn't enough to escape.
Link reached into his bomb bag, only to find out that it was empty.
Link paniced, as he turned to Rhys.

Rhys had several thoughts running through his mind at the moment.
"I can't die here!" Rhys yelled, as a red coloured disc appeared in his hand.
Rhys yelled, as he threw the disc of energy at the rubble.
The impact made the disc explode.

The explosion was much bigger and stronger than Link's bombs, so the rubble was reduced to dust.
"Come on!" Rhys yelled, as he ran out of the cave. Link came running after him.
As they got out, they saw the mines literally collapse on itself.

"That was close..." Link said, as he tried to catch his breath.
"You almost got us killed!" Rhys shouted.
"Be careful next time!"

"Are you telling me to be more careful Rhys?" Link said,
"You go around destroying anything thats in your way!"
"Don't call me Rhys!" he yelled.

"touchy," Link said under his breath.
Rhys came and punched Link in the shoulder.
"Next time you call me Rhys, it'll be your face, not your shoulder!" Rhys yelled.

"Okay, okay, sorry "Shadow" " Link said.
"Thats better." Rhys said with a grin on his face.
"We should be heading out."

Link stood up And stretched for a minute, then they headed out towards the next city in Merak.
And thus, started thier journey into Europe. They knew they would be fighting Nightmare soon.
what they didn't know was that thier greatest challenge was just up ahead.

*************************************************************************

CHAPTER 35

************************************************************

Link and Rhys have been travelling for hours on end, without stopping once.
"Man, am I hungry..." Link said, as he rubbed his stomach with his hand.
"Stop complaining..." Rhys shouted.

Link walked a few steps back from his angry companion.
"I wonder why he's so fed up nowadays," Link thought, as he scratched his fore head.
after another minute of walking, a small city was visable over the horizon.

"I guess that solves our eating problem..." Link said, with relief.
"I hope we have enough gold..." Rhys replied, in a softer tone.
"Link's hand scurmaged around his pockets, and took out four hundred gold.

"I guess it's enough," Rhys sighed.
As the two entered through the front gate, they were surrounded by the town's many citizens.
"hey there, stranger," a man called out, "welcome to Dubhe."
Link turned to the man. "Hey mister, do you know where the closest eatery is?" he asked.

"You mean Farley's Inn? its just around the corner." The man replied, as he pointed to the left street.
"Okay, thank you." Link said, as they headed out towards the man's given directions.

"WHAT?!" Link yelled, as he gasped at the menu.
"five hundred gold for just a measly drum stick?!"
"Is that a problem?" Asked the owner.

"Yes! at the other inn's I have been to, a drumstick was only seventy gold!" Link yelled back.
"Well, why don't you go back there, and enjoy a disgusting meal!" he screamed.
Link reached for Soul calibur's hilt, but Rhys stopped him, by grabbing his arm.

"Idiot! were here to eat, not kill!" Rhys shouted.
"I'm suprised you would say something like that. Considering you kill almost everything in sight!" Link growled.

Rhys was starting to get really mad now.
He stood up out of his seat quickly, and drew Mobius. "You wanna say that again punk?!" Rhys yelled, as he pointed the golden blade's tip at Link's neck.

"Whoah, easy there buddy..." Link smiled innocentley, as sweat started to drip off his chin.
"Come on, you don't want to get innocent people involved."
Rhys was clentching his teeth so hard, that he was wearing them down.

"ummmm... Link said, as he put his hand in one of his pockets, just then, he felt the metal surfaces of a few golden coins. He grabbed them, and took them out.

"Well, look at that..." Link said. "Some more gold..."
Rhys had a dumbfounded look on his face. The owner was already hiding behind the counter for safety.

Rhys ran Link out of the inn. Once they stopped, Link turned at his companion.
"Why are you so angry all of a sudden?" Asked an impatient Link.
"I don't know why..." Rhys confessed, "I just seem... more frustrated than usual...."

"Well, don't take it out on me!" Link said.
"Take it out on our enimies."
Rhys sat down. He took out the medallion ink gave him when they were in Alioth.

Then Link remembered what the guard told him back in the Altair desert.
"If you don't have a pure enough heart, it will soon make you go beserk." He said.
Link looked at Rhys, and saw an unpure look in his crimson coloured eyes.
His heart had been corrupted by the will to avenge his dead sister.

"Rhys, I think I know whats going on..." Link finally spoke out.
"Whats the matter?" asked the warrior.
"I think its because of-"

"We'll i'll be..." said an unkown voice.
Rhys quickly jumped to his feet, and unsheathed his giant broad sword.
"Who's there?" he asked, as he held the sword with both his hands.

"Easy there." Said the voice,
"I won't bite..."

Link recognized the familiar voice, and turned to where it was coming from.
A man wearing a red vest came walking out of the shadows.
He had long blonde hair, and blue eyes. Almost exactley like Link's.
On the side of his belt, was a scabbard that contained a Japanese katana in it.

"It's been a while Link..." The man said.
"This guy knows you?" asked Rhys.
Link ignored his companion, as he kept staring at the man, and then whispered to himself.
"Leon...."

******************************************************************

Nightmare was just leaving Osthreinburg, when he felt yet another sharp pain in his head.
He fell to his knees, and held his head with his hands.
"Not again," Isuka sighed.

*******************************************************************

"Come on boy," a man called out, "if you want to join the ranks of the german knights, you need to do better than this." The two were located in a vast forest. Each fighter had a sharpened stick, to replace a real weapon.

The boy's wooden sword came down on the man, but he easily dodged. The boy flew, from the weight he put into that attack. He hit the rough dirt, and skid.
"Well, Siegfried?" asked the man. "Had enough?" The boy stood up, and grabbed his wooden sword.
He lunged at the man.

"Fredrick!" yelled a man in armour, as he came running towards the two.
The man's attention switched to the man who appeared. The boy's sword slashed at the man, but he dodged again, the man used his sword, and hit the boy in the back. He went flying again.

"Aren't you going a little hard on him?" asked the man in armour.
"he'll need to get used to it." said the other man.
"just because he's my son, doesn't mean that he'll become a general of the army. He needs to work for that title."

"Anyways, I have something to tell you..."

The boy finally woke up.
He was back in his room. The boy got out of bed, and went to another room in his house.
He eventually found his father forging a sword.

The man noticed his son, and looked up.
"So, your'e awake huh?" asked the man.
"I'll never make it into the miltia," the boy said, as he strarted to cry.

The man got out of his seat, and walked over to his son.
He knelt down, and put his hand on his shoulder.
"Keep training," the man said. "You will get better in no time, I promise."

The boy wiped the tears from his cheeks, and looked up to his father.
"Okay!" the boy said with a big smile on his face.
"I'll go train right now!" With that said, the boy raced through the door, and ran outside.

"Get strong Siegfried..." the man said, as he sat back into his seat.

*****************************************************************************

Link ran towards his old friend. "It's good to see tat your still alive..." Link said.
"yeah..." Leon replied.
"So, did you find Nightmare yet?" asked Link, but he already knew the answer.
"....." Leon didn't answer.

"I guess thats a no..." Link sighed.
"Hey, since your here, why don't we travel together?" Link suggested.
"Three swords are better than two,"

Leon looked into the distance, ignoring Link.
Link frowned a little. "Leon? whats wrong?" Link asked, as he reached his hand out towards his friend.

Just then, Leon quickly drew Wa dao, and swiped ferociously at Link.
Link back flipped out of the way of the swipes, not believing what was happening.

"Leon?" Link asked worringly.
"I'm sorry Link." Leon said. "But it is time for you to sleep.
Rhys quickly took out Lehran's medallion, and screamed.
He quickly transformed into his golden dragon form.

Rhys started to swipe at Leon with his claws. Leon easily dodged the attacks, and leaped towards Rhys's right shoulder. He then impaled Rhys's shoulder with his katana.
The sword went right through the other side. He then slashed down wards, and cut Rhys's whole arm. Blood spewed every where. Rhys roared in pain, as he reverted back to normal.

Rhys coughed up huge amounts of blood, before he went unconcious.
His right arm was practically coloured red from all the blood spilling out.
Link looked at his fallen comrade, and then looked at the landing Leon.

Link growled, as he drew Soul Calibur. He leaped at his former friend.
He swiped with all his might, only to see Leon dodge every move.
Leon then kicked Link in the stomach, sending him flying backwards.
As he hit the ground, he could see Leon walking towards him at a fast pace.

Link almost got up, only to be almost killed by Wa dao.
Link looked up, and Leon was standing there, with the tip pointed to Link's chest.
ink thought it was a dream, but then realized that dreams don't hurt that much.

"Why?" cried Link.
Leon looked at Link's bulging ble eyes.
"I knew once you obtained Soul Edge, you wouldn't destroy it." Leon began to speak.
"You would take it for your own, and become the new Nightmare! I had to take you out, but I couldn't take the chance of Nightmare killing me first, so I made a deal with him."

"What?!" Link asked terrified.
"Now that I was working with him, I wouldn't have to worry about him, so I could work on my real objective." Leon said, as he chuckled a bit.
"Once you were dead, I would take your metal fragement, and fuse it with mine. So that I could be able to defeat Nightmare. And when that comes, I will use the evil blade to conquer all life!"

"I'm not out to use it!" Link yelled, "i'm here to destroy it!"
"talk is cheap boy," Leon snorted.
"Now all I need to do is this to kill you, and I can be one step closer to my goal."

Leon raised his Katana, he paused for a moment, and then the blade started to come down.
Link closed his eyes, waiting for it all to be over.
"Zelda, I am sorry I failed you..." he muttered.
But then, instead of hearing metal cutting flesh, he heard the sound of swords clanging together.
Link opened his eyes, only to find that someone blocked the fatal blow.

"What?!" Link and Leon both yelled. The man's sword pushed Leon back a few steps.
"So you have come, Grand edgemaster!" Leon said in disgust.
"The grand edgemaster? he's the grand edgemaster?!" Link reapeated.

Just then, the man turned around.
Link was shocked to find out who it was.
"You all right kid?" aked the man.
"Its... you!" Link yelled.

sorry that was so long.....
Now the chapters will be up daily.  :P

Hey! It's been a while since I dropped by O.o

Wow, I havn't done any of this in a while. O.o
maybe I should continue this....